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Copyright N". 



COFjDRIGHT DEPOSm 



HAVE FAITH 

IN 

MASSACHUSETTS 



HAVE FAITH 

IN 

MASSACHUSETTS 

A Collection of Speeches and Messages 

BY 

CALVIN COOLEDGE 

Governor of Massachiisetts 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

The Riverside Press Cambridge 
1019 



■.an 



COPYRIGHT, I9I9, BY CALVIN COOLIDGB 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



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ULI I D l^lt^ 



©CI.A536i73 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

There are certain fundamental principles 
of sound community life which cannot be 
stated too emphatically or too often. Few 
public men of to-day have shown a finer 
combination of right feeling and clear 
thinking about these principles, with a gift 
for the pithy expression of them, than has 
Governor Calvin Coolidge. It was an ac- 
curate phrase that President Meiklejohn 
used when, in conferring the degree of 
Doctor of Laws on him at Amherst Col- 
lege last June, he complimented him on 
teaching the lesson of "adequate brevity." 
His speeches and messages abound in 
evidences of this gift, but in the main the 
speeches are not easily accessible. It has 
seemed to some of Governor Coolidge's 
admirers, as it has to the publishers of 
this little volume, that a real public service 



vi INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

* 

might be rendered by making a careful 
selection from the best of the speeches and 
issuing them in an attractive and conven- 
ient form. With his permission this has 
been done, and it is hoped that many 
readers will welcome the book in this time 
of special need of inspiring and steadying 
influences. 

It is a time when all men should realize 
that, in the words of Governor Coolidge 
himself, "Laws must rest on the eternal 
foundations of righteousness"; that "In- 
dustry, thrift, character are not conferred 
by act or resolve. Government cannot re- 
lieve from toil." It is a time when we must 
"have faith in Massachusetts. We need a 
broader, firmer, deeper faith in the people, 
— a faith that men desire to do right, that 
the Commonwealth is founded upon a right- 
eousness which will endure." 

The Editors 

Boston, September, 1919 



CONTENTS 

I. To the State Senate on Being Elected its 

President, January 7, 1914 3 

II. Amherst College Alumni Association, 

Boston, February 4, 1916 10 

III. Brockton Chamber of Commerce, April 

11, 1916 15 

IV. At the Home of Daniel Webster, Marsh- 

field, July 4, 1916 21 

V. Riverside, August 28, 1916 38 

VI. At the Home of Augustus P. Gardner, 

Hamilton, September, 1916 42 

VII. Lafayette Banquet, Fall River, Septem- 
ber 4, 1916 47 

VIII. Norfolk Republican Club, Boston, Octo- 
ber 9, 1916 51 

IX. Public Meeting on the High Cost of Liv- 
ing, Faneuil Hall, December 9, 1916 55 

X. One Hundredth Anniversary Dinner of 
the Provident Institution for Savings, 
December 13, 1916 59 

XL Allied Industries Dinner, Boston, Decem- 
ber 15, 1916 63 

XII. On the Nature of Politics 69 



viii CONTENTS 

XIII. Tremont Temple, November 3, 1917 85 

XIV. Dedication of Town-House, Weston, 

November 27, 1917 91 

XV. Amherst Alumni Dinner, Springfield, 

March 15, 1918 102 

XVI. Message for the Boston Post, April 

22, 1918 108^ 

XVII. Roxbury Historical Society, Bunker 

Hill Day, June 17, 1918 109 

XVIII. Fairhaven, July 4, 1918 122 

XIX. Somerville Repubhcan City Commit- 
tee, August 7, 1918 126 
XX. Written for the Sunday Advertiser and 

American, September 1, 1918 132 

XXI. Essex County Club, Lynnfield, Sep- 
tember 14, 1918 138 
XXII. Tremont Temple, November 2, 1918 148 

XXIII. Faneuil Hall, November 4, 1918 158 

XXIV. From Inaugural Address as Gover- 

nor, January 2, 1919 161 

XXV. Statement on the Death of Theodore 

Roosevelt 164 

XXVI. Lincoln Day Proclamation, January 

30, 1919 166 

XXVII. Introducing Henry Cabot Lodge and 
A. Lawrence Lowell at the Debate 
on the League of Nations, Sym- 
phony Hall, March 19, 1919 , 169 



CONTENTS ix 

XXVIII. Veto of Salary Increase 171 

XXIX. Flag Day Proclamation, May 26, 

1919 177 

XXX. Amherst College Commencement, 

June 18, 1919 180 

XXXI. Harvard University Commence- 
ment, June 19, 1919 188 

XXXII. Plymouth, Labor Day, September 1, 

1919 197 

XXXIII. Westfield, September 3, 1919 207 

A Proclamation 219 

An Order 221 

A Telegram 



HAVE FAITH 
IN 

MASSACHUSETTS 



HAVE FAITH 
IN 

MASSACHUSETTS 
I 

TO THE STATE SENATE ON BEING 
ELECTED ITS PRESIDENT 

January 7, 1914 

Honorable Senators : — I thank you — 
with gratitude for the high honor given, 
with appreciation for the solemn obHga- 
tions assumed — I thank you. 

This Commonwealth is one. We are all 
members of one body. The welfare of the 
weakest and the welfare of the most power- 
ful are inseparably bound together. In- 
dustry cannot flourish if labor languish. 
Transportation cannot prosper if manu- 
factures decline. The general welfare can- 
not be provided for in any one act, but it 
is well to remember that the benefit of 
one is the benefit of all, and the neglect 
of one is the neglect of all. The suspension 



4 TO THE STATE SENATE 

of one man's dividends is the suspension of 
another man's pay envelope. 

Men do not make laws. They do but dis- 
cover them. Laws must be justified by 
something more than the will of the major- 
ity. They must rest on the eternal founda- 
tion of righteousness. That state is most 
fortunate in its form of government which 
has the aptest instruments for the discovery 
of laws. The latest, most modern, and near- 
est perfect system that statesmanship has 
devised is representative government. Its 
weakness is the weakness of us imperfect 
human beings who administer it. Its 
strength is that even such administration 
secures to the people more blessings than 
any other system ever produced. No na- 
tion has discarded it and retained liberty. 
Representative government must be pre- 
served. 

Courts are established, not to determine 
the popularity of a cause, but to adjudi- 
cate and enforce rights. No litigant should 



ON BEING ELECTED ITS PRESIDENT 5 

be required to submit his case to the haz- 
ard and expense of a poHtical campaign. 
No judge should be required to seek or 
receive pohtical rewards. The courts of 
Massachusetts are known and honored 
wherever men love justice. Let their glory 
suffer no diminution at our hands. The 
electorate and judiciary cannot combine. 
A hearing means a hearing. When the trial 
of causes goes outside the court-room, 
Anglo-Saxon constitutional government 
ends. 

The people cannot look to legislation 
generally for success. Industry, thrift, 
character, are not conferred by act or re- 
solve. Government cannot relieve from 
toil. It can provide no substitute for the 
rewards of service. It can, of course, care 
for the defective and recognize distin- 
guished merit. The normal must care for 
themselves. Self-government means self- 
support. 

Man is born into the universe with a 



6 TO THE STATE SENATE 

personality that is his own. He has a right 
that is founded upon the constitution of 
the universe to have property that is his 
own. Ultimately, property rights and per- 
sonal rights are the same thing. The one 
cannot be preserved if the other be vio- 
lated. Each man is entitled to his rights and 
the rewards of his service be they never so 
large or never so small. 

History reveals no civilized people 
among whom there were not a highly edu- 
cated class, and large aggregations of 
wealth, represented usually by the clergy 
and the nobility. Inspiration has always 
come from above. Diffusion of learning has 
come down from the university to the com- 
mon school — the kindergarten is last. No 
one would now expect to aid the common 
school by abolishing higher education. 

It may be that the diffusion of wealth 
works in an analogous way. As the little 
red schoolhouse is builded in the college, it 
may be that the fostering and protection 



ON BEING ELECTED ITS PRESIDENT 7 

of large aggregations of wealth are the only 
foundation on which to build the prosper- 
ity of the whole people. Large profits 
mean large pay rolls. But profits must be 
the result of service performed. In no land 
are there so many and such large aggrega- 
tions of wealth as here; in no land do they 
perform larger service; in no land will the 
work of a day bring so large a reward in 
material and spiritual welfare. 

Have faith in Massachusetts. In some 
unimportant detail some other States may 
surpass her, but in the general results, 
there is no place on earth where the people 
secure, in a larger measure, the blessings of 
organized government, and nowhere can 
those functions more properly be termed 
self-government. 

Do the day's work. If it be to protect 
the rights of the weak, whoever objects, 
do it. If it be to help a powerful corpora- 
tion better to serve the people, whatever 
the opposition, do that. Expect to be 



8 TO THE STATE SENATE 

called a stand-patter, but don't be a stand- 
patter. Expect to be called a demagogue, 
but don't be a demagogue. Don't hesitate 
to be as revolutionary as science. Don't 
hesitate to be as reactionary as the multi- 
plication table. Don't expect to build up 
the weak by pulling down the strong. 
Don't hurry to legislate. Give administra- 
tion a chance to catch up with legislation. 

We need a broader, firmer, deeper faith 
in the people — a faith that men desire to do 
right, that the Commonwealth is founded 
upon a righteousness which will endure, a 
reconstructed faith that the final approval 
of the people is given not to demagogues, 
slavishly pandering to their selfishness, 
merchandising with the clamor of the hour, 
but to statesmen, ministering to their wel- 
fare, representing their deep, silent, abid- 
ing convictions. 

Statutes must appeal to more than ma- 
terial welfare. Wages won't satisfy, be 
they never so large. Nor houses; nor lands; 



ON BEING ELECTED ITS PRESIDENT 9 

nor coupons, though they fall thick as the 
leaves of autumn. Man has a spiritual na- 
ture. Touch it, and it must respond as the 
magnet responds to the pole. To that, not 
to selfishness, let the laws of the Common- 
wealth appeal. Recognize the immortal 
worth and dignity of man. Let the laws of 
Massachusetts proclaim to her humblest 
citizen, performing the most menial task, 
the recognition of his manhood, the recog- 
nition that all men are peers, the humblest 
with the most exalted, the recognition that 
all work is glorified. Such is the path to 
equality before the law. Such is the founda- 
tion of liberty under the law. Such is the 
sublime revelation of man*s relation to 
man — Democracy. 



10 AMHERST COLLEGE 



II 

AMHERST COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCLV- 
TION, BOSTON 
February 4, 1916 

We live in an age which questions every- 
thing. The past generation was one of reh- 
gious criticism. This is one of commercial 
criticism. 

We have seen the development of great 
industries. It has been represented that 
some of these have not been free from 
blame. In this development some men have 
seemed to prosper beyond the measure of 
their service, while others have appeared 
to be bound to toil beyond their strength 
for less than a decent livelihood. 

As a result of criticising these conditions 
there has grown up a too well-developed 
public opinion along two lines; one, that 
the men engaged in great affairs are sel- 
fish and greedy and not to be trusted. 



ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, BOSTON 11 

that business activity is not moral and the 
whole system is to be condemned ; and the 
other, that employment, that work, is a 
curse to man, and that working hours 
ought to be as short as possible or in some 
way abolished. After criticism, our reli- 
gious faith emerged clearer and stronger 
and freed from doubt. So will our business 
relations emerge, purified but justified. 

The evidence of evolution and the facts 
of history tell us of the progress and devel- 
opment of man through various steps and 
ages, known by various names. We learn 
of the stone age, the bronze, and the iron 
age. We can see the different steps in the 
growth of the forms of government; how 
anarchy was put down by the strong arm 
of the despot, of the growth of aristoc- 
racy, of limited monarchies and of parlia- 
ments, and finally democracy. 

But in all these changes man took but 
one step at a time. Where we can trace 
history, no race ever stepped directly from 



12 AMHERST COLLEGE 

the stone age to the iron age and no nation 
ever passed directly from depotism to de- 
mocracy. Each advance has been made 
only when a previous stage was approach- 
ing perfection, even to conditions which 
are now sometimes lost arts. 

We have reached the age of invention, 
of commerce, of great industrial enterprise. 
It is often referred to as selfish and ma- 
terialistic. 

Our economic system has been attacked 
from above and from below. But the short 
answer lies in the teachings of history. The 
hope of a Watt or an Edison lay in the 
men who chipped flint to perfection. The 
seed of democracy lay in a perfected des- 
potism. The hope of to-morrow lies in the 
development of the instruments of to-day. 
The prospect of advance lies in maintain- 
ing those conditions which have stimulated 
invention and industry and commerce. The 
only road to a more progressive age lies in 
perfecting the instrumentalities of this age. 



ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, BOSTON 13 

The only hope for peace Hes in the per- 
fection of the arts of war. 

"We build the ladder by which we rise 
And we mount to the summit round by round." 

All growth depends upon activity. Life 
is manifest only by action. There is no 
development physically or intellectually 
without effort, and effort means work. 
Work is not a curse, it is the prerogative of 
intelligence, the only means to manhood, 
and the measure of civilization. Savages 
do not work. The growth of a sentiment 
that despises work is an appeal from civili- 
zation to barbarism. 

I would not be understood as making a 
sweeping criticism of current legislation 
along these lines. I, too, rejoice that an 
awakened conscience has outlawed com- 
mercial standards that were false or low 
and that an awakened humanity has de- 
creed that the working and living condition 



14 AMHERST COLLEGE 

of our citizens must be worthy of true 
manhood and true womanhood. 

I agree that the measure of success is 
not merchandise but character. But I do 
criticise those sentiments, held in all too 
respectable quarters, that our economic 
system is fundamentally wrong, that com- 
merce is only selfishness, and that our citi- 
zens, holding the hope of all that America 
means, are living in industrial slavery. I 
appeal to Amherst men to reiterate and 
sustain the Amherst doctrine, that the man 
who builds a factory builds a temple, that 
the man who works there worships there, 
and to each is due, not scorn and blame, 
but reverence and praise. 



BROCKTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 15 



III 

BROCKTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
April 11, 1916 

Man's nature drives him ever onward. He 
is forever seeking development. At one 
time it may be by the chase, at another by 
warfare, and again by the quiet arts of 
peace and commerce, but something within 
is ever calHng him on to "replenish the 
earth and subdue it." 

It may be of little importance to deter- 
mine at any time just where we are, but it 
is of the utmost importance to determine 
whither we are going. Set the course aright 
and time must bring mankind to the ulti- 
mate goal. 

We are living in a commercial age. It is 
often designated as selfish and materialis- 
tic. We are told that everything has been 
commercialized. They say it has not been 
enough that this spirit should dominate 



16 BROCKTON 

the marts of trade, it has spread to every 
avenue of human endeavor, to our arts, 
our sciences and professions, our politics, 
our educational institutions and even into 
the pulpit; and because of this there are 
those who have gone so far in their criti- 
cism of commercialism as to advocate the 
destruction of all enterprise and the aboli- 
tion of all property. 

Destructive criticism is always easy be- 
cause, despite some campaign oratory, 
some of us are not yet perfect. But con- 
structive criticism is not so easy. The 
faults of commercialism, like many other 
faults, lie in the use we make of it. Before 
we decide upon a wholesale condemnation 
of the most noteworthy spirit of modern 
times it would be well to examine carefully 
what that spirit has done to advance the 
welfare of mankind. 

Wherever we can read human history, 
the answer is always the same. Where com- 
merce has flourished there civilization has 



CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 17 

increased. It has not sufficed that men 
should tend their jflocks, and maintain 
themselves in comfort on their industry 
alone, however great. It is only when 
the exchange of products begins that de- 
velopment follows. This was the case in 
ancient Babylon, whose records of trade 
and banking we are just beginning to 
read. Their merchandise went by canal and 
caravan to the ends of the earth. It was 
not the war galleys, but the merchant 
vessel of Phoenicia, of Tyre, and Carthage 
that brought them civilization and power. 
To-day it is not the battle fleet, but the 
mercantile marine which in the end will 
determine the destiny of nations. The ad- 
vance of our own land has been due to 
our trade, and the comfort and happi- 
ness of our people are dependent on our 
general business conditions. It is only a 
figure of poetry that "wealth accumulates 
and men decay." Where wealth has accu- 
mulated, there the arts and sciences have 



18 BROCKTON 

flourished, there education has been dif- 
fused, and of contemplation Hberty has 
been born. The progress of man has been 
measured by his commercial prosperity. I 
believe that these considerations are suffi- 
cient to justify our business enterprise and 
activity, but there are still deeper reasons. 
I have intended to indicate not only 
that commerce is an instrument of great 
power, but that commercial development 
is necessary to all human progress. What, 
then, of the prevalent criticism.'* Men have 
mistaken the means for the end. It is not 
enough for the individual or the nation to 
acquire riches. Money will not purchase 
character or good government. We are 
under the injunction to "replenish the 
earth and subdue it," not so much because 
of the help a new earth will be to us, as be- 
cause by that process man is to find him- 
self and thereby realize his highest destiny. 
Men must work for more than wages, fac- 
tories must turn out more than merchan- 



CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 19 

dise, or there is naught but black despair 
ahead. 

If material rewards be the only measure 
of success, there is no hope of a peaceful 
solution of our social questions, for they 
will never be large enough to satisfy. But 
such is not the case. Men struggle for ma- 
terial success because that is the path, the 
process, to the development of character. 
We ought to demand economic justice, but 
most of all because it is justice. We must 
forever realize that material rewards are 
limited and in a sense they are only inci- 
dental, but the development of character 
is unlimited and is the only essential. The 
measure of success is not the quantity of 
merchandise, but the quality of manhood 
which is produced. 

These, then, are the justifying concep- 
tions of the spirit of our age; that com- 
merce is the foundation of human progress 
and prosperity and the great artisan of 
human character. Let us dismiss the gen- 



20 BROCKTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

eral indictment that has all too long hung 
over business enterprise. While we con- 
tinue to condemn, unsparingly, selfishness 
and greed and all traflScking in the natural 
rights of man, let us not forget to respect 
thrift and industry and enterprise. Let us 
look to the service rather than to the re- 
ward. Then shall we see in our industrial 
army, from the most exalted captain to 
the humblest soldier in the ranks, a pur- 
pose worthy to minister to the highest 
needs of man and to fulfil the hope of a 
fairer day. 



AT HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER 21 



IV 

AT THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER 
MARSHFIELD 

July 4, 1916 

History is revelation. It is the manifesta- 
tion in human affairs of a "power not our- 
selves that makes for righteousness." Sav- 
ages have no history. It is the mark of 
civilization. This New England of ours 
slumbered from the dawn of creation until 
the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
not unpeopled, but with no record of hu- 
man events worthy of a name. Different 
races came, and lived, and vanished, but 
the story of their existence has little more 
of interest for us than the story the natural- 
ist tells of the animal kingdom, or the geol- 
ogist relates of the formation of the crust 
of the earth. It takes men of larger vision 
and higher inspiration, with a power to im- 
part a larger vision and a higher inspira- 



22 AT THE HOME OF 

tion to the people, to make history. It is 
not a negative, but a positive achievement. 
It is unconcerned with idolatry or despot- 
ism or treason or rebellion or betrayal, but 
bows in reverence before Moses or Hamp- 
den or Washington or Lincoln or the 
Light that shone on Calvary. 

July 4, 1776, was a day of history in its 
high and true significance. Not because the 
underlying principles set out in the Dec- 
laration of Independence were new; they 
are older than the Christian religion, or 
Greek philosophy, nor was it because his- 
tory is made by proclamation or declara- 
tion; history is made only by action. But 
it was an historic day because the repre- 
sentatives of three millions of people there 
vocalized Concord and Lexington and 
Bunker Hill, which gave notice to the 
world that they were acting, and proposed 
to act, and to found an independent na- 
tion, on the theory that "all men are 
created equal; that they are endowed 



DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD 23 

by their Creator with certain inaHenable 
rights; that among these are hfe, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness." The won- 
der and glory of the American people is 
not the ringing declaration of that day, 
but the action, then already begun, and in 
the process of being carried out in spite of 
every obstacle that war could interpose, 
making the theory of freedom and equality 
a reality. We revere that day because it 
marks the beginnings of independence, 
the beginnings of a constitution that 
was finally to give universal freedom and 
equality to all American citizens, the be- 
ginnings of a government that was to rec- 
ognize beyond all others the power and 
worth and dignity of man. There began 
the first of governments to acknowledge 
that it was founded on the sovereignty of 
the people. There the world first beheld 
the revelation of modern democracy. 

Democracy is not a tearing-down; it is 
a building-up. It is not a denial of the 



24 AT THE HOME OF 

divine right of kings; it supplements that 
claim with the assertion of the divine right 
of all men. It does not destroy; it fulfils. It 
is the consummation of all theories of gov- 
ernment, to the spirit of which all the na- 
tions of the earth must yield. It is the great 
constructive force of the ages. It is the 
alpha and omega of man's relation to man, 
the beginning and the end. There is and 
can be no more doubt of the triumph of 
democracy in human affairs, than there 
is of the triumph of gravitation in the 
physical world; the only question is how 
and when. Its foundation lays hold upon 
eternity. 

These are some of the ideals that the 
founders of our institutions expressed, in 
part unconsciously, on that momentous 
day now passed by one hundred and forty 
years. They knew that ideals do not main- 
tain themselves. They knew that they 
there declared a purpose which would be 
resisted by the forces, on land and sea, of 



DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD 25 

the mightiest empire of the earth. Without 
the resolution of the people of the Colo- 
nies to resort to arms, and without the 
guiding military genius of Washington, the 
Declaration of Independence would be 
naught in history but the vision of doc- 
trinaires, a mockery of sounding brass 
and tinkling cymbal. Let us never forget 
that it was that resolution and that genius 
which made it the vitalizing force of a great 
nation. It takes service and sacrifice to 
maintain ideals. 

But it is far more than the Declaration 
of Independence that brings us here to-day. 
That was, indeed, a great document. It was 
drawn up by Thomas Jefferson when he 
was at his best. It was the product of men 
who seemed inspired. No greater company 
ever assembled to interpret the voice of the 
people or direct the destinies of a nation. 
The events of history may have added to it, 
but subtracted nothing. Wisdom and ex- 
perience have increased the admiration of 



26 AT THE HOME OF 

it. Time and critcism have not shaken it. 
It stands with ordinance and law, charter 
and constitution, prophecy and revelation, 
whether we read them in the history of 
Babylon, the results of Runnymede, the 
Ten Commandments, or the Sermon on the 
Mount. But, however worthy of our rev- 
erence and admiration, however preemi- 
nent, it was only one incident of a great 
forward movement of the human race, of 
which the American Revolution was itself 
only a larger incident. It was not so much a 
struggle of the Colonies against the tyranny 
of bad government, as against wrong prin- 
ciples of government, and for self-govern- 
ment. It was man realizing himself. It was 
sovereignty from within which responded 
to the alarm of Paul Revere on that April 
night, and which went marching, gun in 
hand, against sovereignty from without, 
wherever it was found on earth. It only 
paused at Concord, or Yorktown, then 
marched on to Paris, to London, to Mos- 



DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD 27 

cow, to Pekin. Against it the powers of 
privilege and the forces of despotism could 
not prevail. Superstition and sham cannot 
stand before intelligence and reality. The 
light that first broke over the thirteen 
Colonies lying along the Atlantic Coast 
was destined to illuminate the world. It has 
been a struggle against the forces of dark- 
ness; victory has been and is still delayed 
in some quarters, but the result is not in 
doubt. All the forces of the universe are 
ranged on the side of democracy. It must 
prevail. 

In the train of this idea there has come 
to man a long line of collateral blessings. 
Freedom has many sides and angles. Human 
slavery has been swept away. With security 
of personal rights has come security of 
property rights. The freedom of the human 
mind is recognized in the right of free 
speech and free press. The public schools 
have made education possible for all, and 
ignorance a disgrace. A most significant 



28 AT THE HOME OF 

development of respect for man has come 
to be respect for his occupation. It is not 
alone for the learned professions that great 
treasures are now poured out. Technical, 
trade, and vocational schools for teaching 
skill in occupations are fostered and nour- 
ished, with the same care as colleges and 
universities for the teaching of sciences and 
the classics. Democracy not only ennobled 
man; it has ennobled industry. In politi- 
cal affairs the vote of the humblest has long 
counted for as much as the vote of the 
most exalted. We are working towards the 
day when, in our industrial life, equal 
honor shall fall to equal endeavor, whether 
it be exhibited in the office or in the shop. 
These are some of the results of that 
great world movement, which, first exhib- 
iting itself in the Continental Congress of 
America, carried her arms to victory, 
through the sacrifice of a seven years' rev- 
olutionary war, and wrote into the Treaty 
of Paris the recognition of the right of the 



DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD 29 

people to rule: since which days existence 
on this planet has had a new meaning; a 
result which, changing the old order of 
things, putting the race under the control 
and guidance of new forces, rescued man 
from every thraldom, but laid on him every 
duty. 

We know that only ignorance and super- 
stition seek to explain events by fate and 
destiny, yet there is a fascination in such 
speculations born, perhaps, of human 
frailty. How happens it that James Otis 
laid out in 1762 the then almost treasonable 
proposition that "Kings were made for the 
good of the people, and not the people for 
them," in a pamphlet which was circulated 
among the Colonists? What school had 
taught Patrick Henry that national out- 
look which he expressed in the opening de- 
bates of the first Continental Congress when 
he said, "I am not a Virginian, but an 
American," and which hurried him on to 
the later cry of "Liberty or death .^" How, 



30 AT THE HOME OF 

was it that the filhng of a vacancy sent 
Thomas Jefferson to the second Continental 
Congress, there to pen the immortal Dec- 
laration we this day celebrate? No other 
living man could have excelled him in prep- 
aration for, or in the execution of, that 
great task. What circumstance put the 
young George Washington under the mili- 
tary instruction of a former army ojBBcer, 
and then gave him years of training to lead 
the Continental forces? What settled Ethan 
Allen in the wilderness of the Green Moun- 
tains ready to strike Ticonderoga? Whence 
came that power to draft state papers, in a 
new and unlettered land, which compelled 
the admiration of the cultured Earl of 
Chatham? What lengthened out the days 
of Benjamin Franklin that he might nego- 
tiate the Treaty of Paris? What influence 
sent the miraculous voice of Daniel Web- 
ster from the outlying settlements of New 
Hampshire to rouse the land with his ap- 
peal for Liberty and Union? And finally 



DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD 31 

who raised up Lincoln, to lead, to inspire, 
and to die, that the opening assertion of the 
Declaration might stand at last fulfilled? 

These thoughts are overpowering. But let 
us beware of fate and destiny. Barbarians 
have decreased, but barbarism still exists. 
Rome boasted the name of the Eternal 
City. It was but eight hundred years from 
the sack of the city by one tribe of bar- 
barians to the sack of the city by another 
tribe of barbarians. Between lay something 
akin to a democratic commonwealth. Then 
games, and bribes for the populace, with 
dictators and Caesars, while later the 
Praetorian Guard sold the royal purple to 
the highest bidder. After which came 
Alaric, the Goth, and night. Since when 
democracy lay dormant for some fifteen 
centuries. We may claim with reason that 
our Nation has had the guidance of Provi- 
dence; we may know that our form of 
government must ultimately prevail upon 
earth; but what guaranty have we that it 



32 AT THE HOME OF 

shall be maintained here? What proof that 
some unlineal hand, some barbarism, with- 
out or within, shall not wrench the sceptre 
of democracy from our grasp? The rule of 
princes, the privilege of birth, has come 
down through the ages; the rule of the peo- 
ple has not yet marked a century and a 
half. There is no absolute proof, no positive 
guaranty, but there is hope and high ex- 
pectation, and the path is not uncharted. 

It may be some help to know that, how- 
ever much of glory, there is no magic in 
American democracy. Let us examine some 
more of this Declaration of ours, and exam- 
ine it in the light of the events of those sol- 
emn days in which it was adopted. 

Men of every clime have lavished much 
admiration upon the first part of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, and rightly so, 
for it marked the entry of new forces and 
new ideals into human affairs. Its admirers 
have sometimes failed in their attempts to 
live by it, but none have successfully dis- 



DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD 33 

puted its truth. It is the reaHzation of the 
true glory and worth of man, which, when 
once admitted, wrought vast changes that 
have marked all history since its day. All 
this relates to natural rights, fascinating to 
dwell upon, but not suflScient to live by. 
The signers knew that well; more impor- 
tant still, the people whom they repre- 
sented knew it. So they did not stop there. 
After asserting that man was to stand out 
in the universe with a new and supreme im- 
portance, and that governments were in- 
stituted to insure life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness, they did not shrink from 
the logical conclusion of this doctrine. They 
knew that the duty between the citizen 
and the State was reciprocal. They knew 
that the State called on its citizens for their 
property and their lives; they laid down 
the proposition that government was to 
protect the citizen in his life, liberty, and 
pursuit of happiness. At some expense? Yes. 
Those prudent and thrifty men had no 



34 AT THE HOME OF 

false notions about incurring expense. They 
knew the value of increasing their material 
resources, but they knew that prosperity was 
a means, not an end. At cost of life.'' Yes. 
These sons of the Puritans, of the Hugue- 
nots, of the men of Londonderry, braved 
exile to secure peace, but they were not 
afraid to die in defence of their convictions. 
They put no limit on what the State must 
do for the citizen in his hour of need. While 
they required all, they gave all. Let us read 
their conclusion in their own words, and 
mark its simplicity and majesty: "And for 
the support of this Declaration, with a firm 
reliance on the protection of Divine Prov- 
idence, we mutually pledge to each other 
our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred 
honor." There is no cringing reservation 
here, no alternative, and no delay. Here is 
the voice of the plain men of Middlesex, 
promising Yorktown, promising Appo- 
mattox. 

The doctrine of the Declaration of In- 



DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD 35 

dependence, predicated upon the glory of 
man, and the corresponding duty of soci- 
ety, is that the rights of citizens are to be 
protected with every power and resource 
of the State, and a government that does 
any less is false to the teachings of that 
great document, of the name American. 
Beyond this, the principle that it is the ob- 
ligation of the people to rise and overthrow 
government which fails in these respects. 
But above all, the call to duty, the pledge 
of fortune and of life, nobility of character 
through nobility of action: this is Ameri- 
canism. 
" Woe for us if we forget, we that hold by these." 
Herein are the teachings of this day — 
touching the heights of man's glory and the 
depths of man's duty. Here lies the path to 
national preservation, and there is no other. 
Education, the progress of science, commer- 
cial prosperity, yes, and peace, all these and 
their accompanying blessings are worthy 
and commendable objects of attainment. 



36 AT THE HOME OF 

But these are not the end, whether these 
come or no; the end hes in action — ac- 
tion in accord with the eternal principles of 
the Declaration of Independence; the words 
of the Continental Congress, but the deeds 
of the Army of the Revolution. 

This is the meaning of America. And it 
is all our own. Doctrinaires and vision- 
aries may shudder at it. The privilege of 
birth may jeer at it. The practical politi- 
cian may scoff at it. But the people of the 
Nation respond to it, and march away to 
Mexico to the rescue of a colored trooper as 
they marched of old to the rescue of an 
emperor. The assertion of human rights is 
naught but a call to human sacrifice. This 
is yet the spirit of the American people. 
Only so long as this flame burns shall we 
endure and the light of liberty be shed over 
the nations of the earth. May the increase 
of the years increase for America only the 
devotion to this spirit, only the intensity of 
this flame, and the eternal truth of Low- 
ell's lines: 



DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD 37 

' What were our lives without thee? 
What all our lives to save thee ? 
We reck not what we gave thee; 
We will not dare to doubt thee, 
But ask whatever else and we will dare." 



38 RIVERSIDE 



V 

RIVERSIDE 

August 28, 1916 

It may be that there would be votes for the 
Repubhcan Party in the promise of low 
taxes and vanishing expenditures. I can see 
an opportunity for its candidates to pose as 
the apostles of retrenchment and reform. I 
am not one of those who believe votes are 
to be won by misrepresentations, skilful 
presentations of half truths, and plausible 
deductions from false premises. Good gov- 
ernment cannot be found on the bargain- 
counter. We have seen samples of bargain- 
counter government in the past when low 
tax rates were secured by increasing the 
bonded debt for current expenses or refus- 
ing to keep our institutions up to the stand- 
ard in repairs, extensions, equipment, and 
accommodations. I refuse, and the Repub- 
lican Party refuses, to endorse that method 



RIVERSIDE 39 

of sham and shoddy economy. New proj- 
ects can wait, but the commitments of the 
Commonwealth must be maintained. We 
cannot curtail the usual appropriations or 
the care of mothers with dependent chil- 
dren or the support of the poor, the insane, 
and the infirm. The Democratic programme 
of cutting the State tax, by vetoing appro- 
priations of the utmost urgency for im- 
provements and maintenance costs of in- 
stitutions and asylums of the unfortunates 
of the State, cannot be the example for a 
Republican administration. The result has 
been that our institutions are deficient in 
resources — even in sleeping accommoda- 
tions — and it will take years to restore 
them to the old-time Republican efficiency. 
Our party will have no part in a scheme of 
economy which adds to the misery of the 
wards of the Commonwealth — the sick, 
the insane, and the unfortunate; those who 
are too weak even to protest. 

Because I know these conditions I know 



40 RIVERSIDE 

a Republican administration would face an 
increasing State tax rather than not see 
them remedied. 

The Republican Party lit the fire of prog- 
ress in Massachusetts. It has tended it 
faithfully. It will not flicker now. It has 
provided here conditions of employment, 
and safeguards for health, that are surpassed 
nowhere on earth. There will be no back- 
ward step. The reuniting of the Republican 
Party means no reaction in the protection 
of women and children in our industrial 
life. These laws are settled. These princi- 
ples are established. Minor modifications 
are possible, but the foundations are not to 
be disturbed. The advance may have been 
too rapid in some cases, but there can be no 
retreat. That is the position of the great 
majority of those who constitute our party. 

We recognize there is need of relief — 
need to our industries, need to our popula- 
tion in manufacturing centres; but it must 
come from construction, not from destruc- 



RIVERSIDE 41 

tion. Put an administration on Beacon Hill 
that can conserve our resources, that can 
protect us from further injuries, until a 
national Republican policy can restore 
those conditions of confidence and pros- 
perity under which our advance began and 
under which it can be resumed. 

This makes the coming State election 
take on a most important aspect — not 
that it can furnish all the needed relief, but 
that it will increase the probability of a 
complete relief in the near future if it be 
crowned with Republican victory. 



42 AT THE HOME OF 



VI 

AT THE HOME OF AUGUSTUS P. 
GARDNER, HAMILTON 

September, 1916 

Standing here in the presence of our host, 
our thoughts naturally turn to a discussion 
of " Preparedness." I do not propose to over- 
look that issue; but I shall offer suggestions 
of another kind of "preparedness.'* Not 
that I shrink from full and free considera- 
tion of the military needs of our country. 
Nor do I agree that it is now necessary to 
remain silent regarding the domestic or 
foreign relations of this Nation. 

I agree that partisanship should stop at 
the boundary line, but I assert that patriot- 
ism should begin there. Others, however, 
have covered this field, and I leave it to 
them and to you. 

I do, however, propose to discuss the " pre- 
paredness" of the State to care for its un- 



AUGUSTUS P. GARDNER, HAMILTON 43 

fortunates. And I propose to do this with- 
out any party bias and without blame upon 
any particular individual, but in just criti- 
cism of a system. 

In Massachusetts, we are citizens before 
we are partisans. The good name of the 
Commonwealth is of more moment to us 
than party success. But unfortunately, be- 
cause of existing conditions, that good name, 
in one particular at least, is now in jeopardy. 

Massachusetts, for twenty years, has 
been able honestly to boast of the care it 
has bestowed upon her sick, poor, and in- 
sane. Her institutions have been regarded 
as models throughout the world. We are 
falling from that proud estate; crowded 
housing conditions, corridors used for sleep- 
ing purposes, are not only not unusual, but 
are coming to be the accepted standard. 
The heads of asylums complain that main- 
tenance and the allowance for food supply 
and supervision are being skimped. 

On August 1 of this year, the institu- 



44 AT THE HOME OF 

tlons throughout the State housed more 
than 700 patients above what they were de- 
signed to accommodate, and I am told the 
crowding is steadily increasing. That is one 
reason I have been at pains to set forth 
that I do not see the way clear to make a 
radical reduction in the annual State bud- 
get. I now repeat that declaration, in spite 
of contradiction, because I know the citi- 
zens of this State have no desire for econo- 
mies gained at such a sacrifice. The people 
have no stomach for retrenchment of that 
sort. 

A charge of overcrowding, which must 
mean a lack of care, is not to be carelessly 
made. You are entitled to facts, as well as 
phrases. I gave the whole number now con- 
fined in our institutions above the stated 
capacity as over 700. About August 1, Dan- 
vers had 1530 in an institution of 1350 ca- 
pacity. Northampton, my home town, had 
913, in a hospital built for 819. In Boston 
State Hospital, there were 1572, where the 



AUGUSTUS P. GARDNER, HAMILTON 45 

capacity was 1406. Westboro had 1260 in- 
mates, with capacity for 1161, and Medfield 
had 1615, where the capacity was 1542. 
These capacities are given from official re- 
corded accommodations. 

This was not the practice of the past, and 
there can be no question as to where the 
responsibihty rests. The General Court has 
done its best, but there has been a halt 
elsewhere. A substantial appropriation was 
made for a new State Hospital for the Met- 
ropolitan District, and an additional ap- 
propriation for a new institution for the 
feeble-minded in the western part of the 
State. In its desire to hasten matters, the 
legislature went even further and granted 
money for plans for a new hospital in the 
Metropolitan District, to relieve part of the 
outside congestion, but the needed relief is 
still in the future. 

I feel the time has come when the people 
must assert themselves and show that they 
will tolerate no delay and no parsimony in 



46 AUGUSTUS P. GARDNER, HAMILTON 

the care of our unfortunates. Restore the 
fame of our State in the handling of these 
problems to its former lustre. 

I repeat that this is not partisan. I am 
not criticising individuals. I am denouncing 
a system. When you substitute patronage 
for patriotism, administration breaks down. 
We need more of the Office Desk and less 
of the Show Window in politics. Let men 
in office substitute the midnight oil for the 
limelight. Let Massachusetts return to the 
sound business methods which were exem- 
plified in the past by such Democrats in the 
East as Governor Gaston and Governor 
Douglas, and by such Republicans in the 
West as Governor Robinson and Governor 
Crane. 

Above all, let us not, in our haste to pre- 
pare for war, forget to prepare for peace. 
The issue is with you. You can, by your 
votes, show what system you stamp with 
the approval of enlightened Massachusetts 
Public Opinion. 



LAFAYETTE BANQUET, FALL RIVER 47 



VII 

LAFAYETTE BANQUET, FALL RIVER 

September 4, 1916 

Seemingly trifling events oft carry in 
their train great consequences. The firing of 
a gun in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, 
Macaulay tells us, started the Seven Years' 
War which set the world in conflagration, 
causing men to fight each other on every 
shore of the seven seas and giving new mas- 
ters to the most ancient of empires. VV^e see 
to-day fifteen nations engaged in the most 
terrific war in the history of the human 
race and trace its origin to the bullet of a 
madman fired in the Balkans. It is true 
that the flintlock gun at Lexington was not 
the first, nor yet the last, to fire a "shot 
heard round the world." It was not the 
distance it travelled, but the message it 
carried which has marked it out above all 
other human events. It was the character 



48 LAFAYETTE BANQUET, FALL RIVER 

of that message which claimed the atten- 
tion of him we this day honor, in the far-off 
fortress of the now famous Metz; it was 
because it roused in the hstener a sympa- 
thetic response that it was destined to hnk 
forever the events of Concord and Lex- 
ington and Bunker Hill and Dorchester 
Heights, in our Commonwealth, with the 
name of Lafayette. 

For there was a new tone in those Massa- 
chusetts guns. It was not the old lust of 
conquest, not the sullen roar of hatred and 
revenge, but a higher, clearer note of a peo- 
ple asserting their inalienable sovereignty. 
It is a happy circumstance that one of our 
native-born, Benjamin Franklin, was in- 
strumental in bringing Lafayette to Amer- 
ica; but beyond that it is fitting at this 
time to give a thought to our Common- 
wealth because his ideals, his character, his 
life, were all in sympathy with that great 
Revolution which was begun within her 
borders and carried to a successful con- 



LAFAYETTE BANQUET, FALL RIVER 49 

elusion by the sacrifice of her treasure and 
her blood. It was not the able legal argu- 
ment of James Otis against the British 
Writs of Assistance, nor the petitions and 
remonstrances of the Colonists to the Brit- 
ish throne, admirable though they were, 
that aroused the approbation and brought 
his support to our cause. It was not alone 
that he agreed with the convictions of the 
Continental Congress. He saw in the exam- 
ple of Massachusetts a people who would 
shrink from no sacrifice to defend rights 
which were beyond price. It was not the 
Tories, fleeing to Canada, that attracted 
him. It was the patriots, bearing arms, 
and he brought them not a pen but a sword. " 

"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to 
law," and "obedience to law is liberty." 
Those are the foundations of the Common- 
wealth. It was these principles in action 
which appealed to that young captain of 
dragoons and brought the sword and re- 
sources of the aristocrat to battle for de- 



50 LAFAYETTE BANQUET, FALL RIVER 

mocracy. I love to think of his connection 
with our history. I love to think of him at 
the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment receiving the approbation of the Na- 
tion from the lips of Daniel Webster. I love 
to think of the long line of American citi- 
zens of French blood in our Commonwealth 
to-day, ready to defend the principles he 
fought for, "Liberty under the Law," citi- 
zens who, like him, look not with apology, 
but with respect and approval and admira- 
tion on that sentiment inscribed on the 
white flag of Massachusetts, '^Ense petit 
placidam sub lihertate quietem" (With a 
sword she seeks secure peace under liberty). 



NORFOLK REPUBLICAN CLUB, BOSTON 51 



VIII 

NORFOLK REPUBLICAN CLUB, BOSTON 
October 9, 1916 

Last night at Somerville I spoke on some 
of the fundamental differences between the 
RepubHcan and Democratic poHcies, and 
showed how we were dependent on Repub- 
Hcan principles as a foundation on which to 
erect any advance in our social and eco- 
nomic welfare. 

This year the Republican Party has 
adopted a very advanced platform. That 
was natural, for we have always been the 
party of progress, and have given our atten- 
tion to that, when we were not engaged in 
a life-and-death struggle to overcome the 
fallacies put forth by our opponents, with 
which we are all so familiar. The result has 
been that here in Massachusetts, where 
our party has ever been strong, and where 
we have framed legislation for more than 



52 NORFOLK REPUBLICAN CLUB, BOSTON 

fifty years, more progress has been made 
along the Hnes of humanitarian legislation 
than in any other State. We have felt free 
to call on our industries to make large out- 
lays along these lines because we have fur- 
nished them with the advantages of a pro- 
tective tariff and an honest and efficient 
state government. The consequences have 
been that in this State the hours and condi- 
tions of labor have been better than any- 
where else on earth. Those provisions for 
safety, sanitation, compensations for acci- 
dents, and for good living conditions have 
now been almost entirely worked out. There 
remains, however, the condition of sickness, 
age, misfortune, lack of employment, or 
some other cause, that temporarily renders 
people unable to care for themselves. Our 
platform has taken up this condition. 

We have long been familiar with insur- 
ance to cover losses. You will readily recall 
the different kinds. Formerly it was only 
used in commerce, by the well-to-do. Re- 



NORFOLK REPUBLICAN CLUB, BOSTON 53 

cently it has been adapted to the use of all 
our people by the great industrial com- 
panies which have been very successful. 
Our State has adopted a system of savings- 
bank insurance, thus reducing the expense. 
Now, social insurance will not be, under a 
Republican interpretation, any new form of 
outdoor relief, some new scheme of living 
on the town. It will be an extension of the 
old familiar principle to the needs at hand, 
and so popularized as to meet the require- 
ments of our times. 

It ought to be understood, however, 
that there can be no remedy for lack of in- 
dustry and thrift, secured by law. It ought 
to be understood that no scheme of insur- 
ance and no scheme of government aid is 
likely to make us all prosperous. And above 
all, these remedies must go forward on the 
firm foundation of an independent, self- 
supporting, self-governing people. But we 
do honestly put forward a proposition for 
the relief of misfortune. 



54 NORFOLK REPUBLICAN CLUB, BOSTON 

The Republican Party is proposing hu- 
manitarian legislation to build up character, 
to establish independence, not pauperism; 
it will in the future, as in the past, ever 
stand opposed to the establishment of one 
class who shall live on the Government, 
and another class who shall pay the taxes. 
To those who fear we are turning Socialists, 
and to those who think we are withholding 
just and desirable public aid and support, I 
say that government under the Republican 
Party will continue in the future to be so 
administered as to breed not mendicants, 
but men. Humanitarian legislation is going 
to be the handmaid of character. 



ON THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 55 



IX 

PUBLIC MEETING ON THE HIGH COST 
OF LIVING, FANEUIL HALL 
December 9, 1916 

The great aim of American institutions is 
the protection of the individual. That is 
the principle which lies at the foundation 
of Anglo-Saxon liberty. It matters not with 
what power the individual is assailed, nor 
whether that power is represented by 
wealth or place or numbers; against it the 
humblest American citizen has the right to 
the protection of his Government by every 
force that Government can command. 

This right would be but half expressed 
if it ran only to a remedy after a wrong is 
inflicted; it should and does run to the pre- 
vention of a wrong which is threatened. V^e 
find our citizens, to-day, not so much suf- 
fering from the high cost of living, though 
that is grievous enough, as threatened with 



56 OX THE HIGH COST OF LR'ES'G 

an increasing cost which will bring suffering 
and misery to a large body of our inhab- 
itants. So we come here not only to discuss 
pro\-iding a remedy for what is now exist- 
ing, but some protection to ward off what 
is threatening to be a worse calamity, \^'e 
shall utterly fail of our purpose to provide 
relief unless we look at things as they are. 
It is useless to indulge in indiscriminate 
abuse. We must not confuse the innocent 
with the guilty; it must be our object to 
allay suspicion, not to create it. The great 
body of our tradespeople are honest and 
conscientious, anxious to serve their cus- 
tomers for a fair return for their service. We 
want their cooperation in our pursuit ol 
facts: we want to cvxiperate with them in 
proposing and securing a remedy. We do 
not denv the existence of economic laws, 
nor the right to profit by a change of con- 
ditions. 

But we do claim the right and duty of 
the Government to investigate and punish 



ON THE BSSEL CO?! OF UVrSG 37 

any artificial creatioii of high jxicses by 
means of illegal mrnqpofies w restraints of 
trade. And aboTe aD. w^e daim the right (^ 
pdUicity. That is a reoaedy with an ..rzi 
- - ' : lian that of the 1^^. 

I - '^ ' <M «od the rem- 

e I" vrcwidng along 

:" - :?h) from the 

: V .,_ e are pre- 

j : : : :^ t: ^nyreasMiiL rv 

are not ? : .: tor charity c: : r: fair 
piicesa: prc^ts theywil , 7; 

bat they ^ rJwmatiQn : .ire 

fair, and .u_ ___Ti'-^f r^ff": :l 1: :Jiey 
are not. 

The C-nizijjiirealth ha^ ; : 7: _ _ 
zi:zey for an invest%atioi: -ijietent 

cofnfiHsaop. 1:5 Police I ; : zirzt, its 
Lr Z ^^ :'zirzr:. ;:- .."- .\: '\'. ^e^vice 
of our citizci^ 1 suspi- 

cion; Irt us leiiaiii :: _: ^ : -f 

blame; but Irt us ^le 

proper anthcrrti^ :.^. .. - _- .^ 7 iz.:^ 



58 ON THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 

of unfair practices. Let all our merchants, 
of whatever degree, assist in this work for 
the public good and let the individual see 
and feel that all his rights are protected by 
his Government. 



THE PROVIDENT INSTITUTION 59 



X 

ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY DIN- 
NER OF THE PROVIDENT INSTITUTION 
FOR SAVINGS 

December 13, 1916 

The history of the institution we here cele- 
brate reaches back more than one third of 
the way to the landing of the Mayflower 
— back to the day of the men who signed 
the Declaration of Independence, who saw 
Prescott, Pomeroy, Stark, and Warren at 
Bunker Hill, who followed W^ashington and 
his generals from Dochester Heights to 
Yorktown, and saw the old Bay Colony 
become the Commonwealth of Massachu- 
setts. They had seen a nation in the making. 
They founded their government on the 
rights of the individual. They had no hesi- 
tation in defending those rights against the 
invasion of a British King and Parliament, 



60 THE PROVIDENT INSTITUTION 

by a Revolutionary War, nor in criticis- 
ing their own Government at Washington 
when they thought an invasion of those 
rights was again threatened by the prehm- 
inaries and the prosecution of the War of 
1812. They had made the Commonwealth. 
They understood its Government. They 
knew it was a part of themselves, their 
own organization. They had not acquired 
the state of mind that enabled them to 
stand aloof and regard government as 
something apart and separate from the 
people. It would never have occurred to 
them that they could not transact for them- 
selves any other business just as well as 
they could transact for themselves the 
business of government. They were the 
men who had fought a war to limit the 
power of government and enlarge the priv- 
ileges of the individual. 

It was the same spirit that made Massa- 
chusetts that made the Provident Institu- 
tion for Savings. What the men of that day 



FOR SAVINGS 61 

wanted they made for themselves. They 
would never have thought of asking Con- 
gress to keep their money in the post-office. 
They did not want their commercial privi- 
leges interfered with by having the Govern- 
ment buy and sell for them. They had the 
self-reliance and the independence to prefer 
to do those things for themselves. This is 
the spirit that founded Massachusetts, the 
spirit that has seen your bank grow until it 
could now probably purchase all there was 
of property in the Commonwealth when it 
began its existence. I want to see that spirit 
still preeminent here. I want to see a deeper 
realization on the part of the people that 
this is their Commonwealth, their Govern- 
ment; that they control it, that they pay its 
expenses, that it is, after all, only a part of 
themselves; that any attempt to shift upon 
it their duties, their responsibilities, or their 
support will in the end only delude, de- 
grade, impoverish, and enslave. Your in- 
stitution points the only way, through 



62 THE PROVIDENT INSTITUTION 

self-control, self-denial, and self-support, 
to self-government, to independence, to a 
more generous liberty, and to a firmer es- 
tablishment of individual rights. 



ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES DINNER 63 



XI 

ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES DINNER 
BOSTON 

December 15, 1916 

During the past few years we have ques- 
tioned the soundness of many principles 
that had for a long time been taken for 
granted. We have examined the founda- 
tions of our institutions of government. We 
have debated again the theories of the men 
who wrote the Declaration of Independence, 
the Constitution of the Nation, and laid 
down the fundamental law of our own Com- 
monwealth. Along with this examination of 
our form of government has gone an exami- 
nation of our social, industrial, and econo- 
mic system. What is to come out of it all.f^ 

In the last fifty years we have had a ma- 
terial prosperity in this country the like 
of which was never beheld before. A pros- 
perity which not only built up great indus- 



64 ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES DINNER 

tries, great transportation systems, great 
banks and a great commerce, but a pros- 
perity under whose influence arts and sci- 
ences, education and charity flourished 
most abundantly. It was little wonder that 
men came to think that prosperity was the 
chief end of man and grew arrogant in the 
use of its power. It was little wonder that 
such a misunderstanding arose that one 
part of the community thought the owners 
and managers of our great industries were 
robbers, or that they thought some of the 
people meant to confiscate all property. It 
has been a costly investigation, but if we 
can arrive at a better understanding of our 
economic and social laws it will be worth 
all it cost. 

As a part of this discussion we have had 
many attempts at regulation of industrial 
activity by law. Some of it has proceeded 
on the theory that if those who enjoyed 
material prosperity used it for wrong pur- 
poses, such prosperity should be limited or 



ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES DINNER 65 

abolished. That is as sound as it would be 
to abolish writing to prevent forgery. We 
need to keep forever in mind that guilt is 
personal ; if there is to be punishment let it 
fall on the evil-doer, let us not condemn the 
instrument. We need power. Is the steam 
engine too strong .^^ Is electricity too swift .^^ 
Can any prosperity be too great .^^ Can any 
instrument of commerce or industry ever 
be too powerful to serve the public needs? 
What then of the anti-trust laws? They are 
sound in theory. Their assemblances of 
wealth are broken up because they were as- 
sembled for an unlawful purpose. It is the 
purpose that is condemned. You men who 
represent our industries can see that there 
is the same right to disperse unlawful as- 
sembling of wealth or power that there is to 
disperse a mob that has met to lynch or 
riot. But that principle does not denounce 
town-meetings or prayer-meetings. 

We have established here a democracy on 
the principle that all men are created equal. 



66 ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES DINNER 

It is our endeavor to extend equal blessings 
to all. It can be done approximately if we 
establish the correct standards. We are 
coming to see that we are dependent upon 
commercial and industrial prosperity, not 
only for the creation of wealth, but for the 
solving of the great problem of the distri- 
bution of wealth. There is just one condi- 
tion on which men can secure employment 
and a living, nourishing, profitable wage, 
for whatever they contribute to the enter- 
prise, be it labor or capital, and that condi- 
tion is that some one make a profit by it. 
That is the sound basis for the distribution 
of wealth and the only one. It cannot be 
done by law, it cannot be done by public 
ownership, it cannot be done by socialism. 
When you deny the right to a profit you 
deny the right of a reward to thrift and in- 
dustry. 

The scientists tell us that the same force 
that rounds the teardrop moulds the earth. 
Physical laws have their analogy in social 



ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES DINNER 67 

and industrial life. The law that builds up 
the people is the law that builds up indus- 
try. What price could the millions, who 
have found the inestimable blessings of 
American citizenship around our great in- 
dustrial centres, after coming here from 
lands of oppression, afford to pay to those 
who organized those industries .^^ Shall we 
not recognize the great service they have 
done the cause of humanity.'* Have we not 
seen what happens to industry, to trans- 
portation, to all commercial activity which 
we call business when profit fails? Have we 
not seen the suffering and misery which it 
entails upon the people? 

Let us recognize the source of these fun- 
damental principles and not hesitate to as- 
sert them. Let us frown upon greed and self- 
ishness, but let us also condemn envy and 
uncharitableness. Let us have done with 
misunderstandings, let us strive to realize 
the dream of democracy by a prosperity 
of industry that shall mean the prosper- 



68 ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES DINNER 

ity of the people, by a strengthening of 
our material resources that shall mean a 
strengthening of our character, by a mer- 
chandising that has for its end manhood, 
and womanhood, the ideal of American 
Citizenship. 



ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 69 



XII 

ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 
Politics is not an end, but a means. It is 
not a product, but a process. It is the art 
of government. Like other values it has its 
counterfeits. So much emphasis has been 
put upon the false that the significance of 
the true has been obscured and politics 
has come to convey the meaning of crafty 
and cunning selfishness, instead of candid 
and sincere service. The Greek derivation 
shows the nobler purpose. Politikos means 
city-rearing, state-craft. And when we re- 
member that city also meant civilization, 
the spurious presentment, mean and sordid, 
drops away and the real figure of the poli- 
tician, dignified and honorable, a minister 
to civilization, author and finisher of gov- 
ernment, is revealed in its true and digni- 
fied proportions. 

There is always something about genius 



70 ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 

that is indefinable, mysterious, perhaps to 
its possessor most of all. It has been the 
product of rude surroundings no less than 
of the most cultured environment, want 
and neglect have sometimes nourished it, 
abundance and care have failed to produce 
it. Why some succeed in public life and 
others fail would be as difficult to tell as 
why some succeed or fail in other activi- 
ties. Very few men in America have started 
out with any fixed idea of entering public 
life, fewer still would admit having such an 
idea. It was said of Chief Justice Waite, 
of the United States Supreme Court, being 
asked when a youth what he proposed to 
do when a man, he replied, he had not 
yet decided whether to be President or 
Chief Justice. This may be in part due to a 
general profession of holding to the princi- 
ple of Benjamin Franklin that office should 
neither be sought nor refused and in part to 
the American idea that the people choose 
their own oflScers so that public service is 



ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 71 

not optional. In other countries this is not 
so. For centuries some seats in the British 
ParHament were controlled and probably 
sold as were commissions in the army, but 
that has never been the case here. A certain 
Congressman, however, on arriving at 
Washington was asked by an old friend 
how he happened to be elected. He replied 
that he was not elected, but appointed. It is 
worth while noting that the boss who was 
then supposed to hold the power of appoint- 
ment in that district has since been driven 
from power, but the Congressman, though 
he was defeated when his party was lately 
divided, has been reelected. All of which 
suggests that the boss did not appoint in 
the first instance, but was merely well 
enough informed to see what the people 
wanted before they had formulated their 
own opinions and desires. It was said of 
McKinley that he could tell what Congress 
would do on a certain measure before the 
men in Congress themselves knew what 



72 ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 

their decision was to be. Cannon has said of 
McKinley that his ear was so close to the 
ground that it w^as full of grasshoppers. But 
the fact remains that office brokerage is 
here held in reprehensive scorn and pro- 
fessional office-seeking in contempt. Every 
native-born American, however, is poten- 
tially a President, and it must always be re- 
membered that the obligation to serve the 
State is forever binding upon all, although 
office is the gift of the people. 

Of course these considerations relate not 
to appointive places like the Judiciary, 
Commissionerships, clerical positions and 
like places, but to the more important elec- 
tive ofiices. Another reason why political 
life of this nature is not chosen as a career 
is that it does not pay. Nearly all offices of 
this class are held at a financial sacrifice, 
not merely that the holder could earn more 
at some other occupation, but that the sal- 
ary of the oflSce does not maintain the 
holder of the office. It is but recently that 



ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 73 

Parliament has paid a salary to its members. 
In years gone by the United States Senate 
has been rather marked for its number of 
rich men. Few prominent members of Con- 
gress are dependent on their salary, which 
is but another way of saying that in Wash- 
ington Senators and Representatives need 
more than their oflScial salaries to become 
most effective. It is a consolation to be 
able to state that this is not the condition 
of members of the Massachusetts General 
Court. There, ability and character come 
very near to being the sole requirements 
for success. Although some men have seen 
service in our legislature of nearly twenty 
years, to the great benefit of the Common- 
wealth, no one would choose that for a 
career and these men doubtless look on it 
only as an avocation. 

For these reasons we have no profession 
of politics or of public life in the sense that 
we have a profession of law and medicine 
and other learned callings. We have men 



74 ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 

who have spent many years in office, but it 
would be difficult to find one outside the 
limitations noted who would refer to that 
as his business, occupation, or profession. 

The inexperienced are prone to hold an 
erroneous idea of public life and its methods. 
Not long ago I listened to a joint debate in 
a prominent preparatory school. Each side 
took it for granted that public men were 
influenced only by improper motives and 
that officials of the government were seek- 
ing only their own gain and advantage with- 
out regard to the welfare of the people. 
Such a presumption has no foundation in 
fact. There are dishonest men in public 
office. There are quacks, shysters, and 
charlatans among doctors, lawyers, and 
clergy, but they are not representative of 
their professions nor indicative of their 
methods. Our public men, as a class, are 
inspired by honorable and patriotic motives, 
desirous only of a faithful execution of their 
trust from the executive and legislative 



ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 75 

branches of the States and Nation down to 
the executives of our towns, who bear the 
dignified and significant title of selectmen. 
Public men must expect criticism and be 
prepared to endure false charges from their 
•opponents. It is a matter of no great con- 
cern to them. But public confidence in 
government is a matter of great concern. It 
cannot be maintained in the face of such 
opinions as I have mentioned. It is neces- 
sary to differentiate between partisan as- 
sertions and actual conditions. It is neces- 
sary to recognize worth as well as to con- 
demn graft. No system of government can 
stand that lacks public confidence and no 
progress can be made on the assumption of 
a false premise. Public administration is 
honest and sound and public business is 
transacted on a higher plane than private 
business. 

There is no difficulty for men in college 
to understand elections and government. 
They have all had experience in it. The 



76 ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 

same motives that operate in the choice 
of class officers operate in choosing officers 
for the Commonwealth. Here men are soon 
estimated at their true worth. Here places 
of trust are conferred and administered as 
they will be in later years. The scale is 
smaller, the opportunities are less, condi- 
tions are more artificial, but the principles 
are the same. Of course the present esti- 
mate is not the ultimate. There are men 
here who appear important that will not 
appear so in years to come. There are men 
who seem insignificant now who will de- 
velop at a later day. But the motive which 
leads to elections here leads to elections in 
the State. 

Is there any especial obligation on the 
part of college-bred men to be candidates 
for public office? I do not think so. It is 
said that although college graduates con- 
stitute but one per cent of the population, 
they hold about fifty per cent of the public 
offices, so that this question seems to take 



ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 77 

care of itself. But I do not feel that there is 
any more obligation to run for office than 
there is to become a banker, a merchant, a 
teacher, or enter any other special occupa- 
tion. As^ indicated some men have a par- 
ticular aptitude in this direction and some 
have none. Of course experience counts 
here as in any other human activity, and 
all experience worth the name is the result 
of application, of time and thought and 
study and practice. If the individual finds 
he has liking and capacity for this work, he 
will involuntarily find himself engaged in it. 
There is no catalogue of such capacity. One 
man gets results in one way, another in 
another. But in general only the man of 
broad sympathy and deep understanding 
of his fellow men can meet with much 
success. 

What I have said relates to the some- 
what narrow field of office-holding. This is 
really a small part of the American system 
or of any system. James Bryce tells us that 



78 ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 

we have a government of public opinion. 
That is growing to be more and more true 
of the governments of the entire world. The 
first care of despotism seems to be to con- 
trol the school and the press. Where the 
mind is free it turns not to force but to 
reason for the source of authority. Men sub- 
mit to a government of force as we are doing 
now when they believe it is necessary for 
their security, necessary to protect them 
from the imposition of force from without. 
This is probably the main motive of the 
German people. They have been taught 
that their only protection lay in the support 
of a military despotism. Rightly or wrongly 
they have believed this and believing have 
submitted to what they suppose their only 
means of security. They have been governed 
accordingly. Germany is still feudal. 

This leads to the larger and all important 
field of politics. Here we soon see that office- 
holding is the incidental, but the standard 
of citizenship is the essential. Government 



ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 79 

does rest upon the opinions of men. Its 
results rest on their actions. This makes 
every man a pohtician whether he will or 
no. This lays the burden on us all. Men who 
have had the advantages of liberal culture 
ought to be the leaders in maintaining the 
standards of citizenship. Unless they can 
and do accomplish this result education is 
a failure. Greatly have they been taught, 
greatly must they teach. The power to 
think is the most practical thing in the 
world. It is not and cannot be cloistered 
from politics. 

We live under a republican form of gov- 
ernment. We need forever to remember 
that representative government does rep- 
resent. A careless, indifferent representa- 
tive is the result of a careless, indifferent 
electorate. The people who start to elect a 
man to get what he can for his district will 
probably find they have elected a man who 
will get what he can for himself. A body 
will keep on its course for a time after the 



80 ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 

moving impulse ceases by reason of its mo- 
mentum. The men who founded our govern- 
ment had fought and thought mightily on 
the relationship of man to his government. 
Our institutions would go for a time under 
the momentum they gave. But we should 
be deluded if we supposed they can be 
maintained without more of the same stern 
sacrifice offered in perpetuity. Govern- 
ment is not an edifice that the founders 
turn over to posterity all completed. It is an 
institution, like a university which fails un- 
less the process of education continues. 

The State is not founded on selfishness. 
It cannot maintain itself by the offer of 
material rewards. It is the opportunity for 
service. There has of late been held out the 
hope that government could by legislation 
remove from the individual the need of 
effort. The managers of industries have 
seemed to think that their difiiculties could 
be removed and prosperity ensured by 
changing the laws. The employee has been 



ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 81 

led to believe that his condition could be 
made easy by the same method. When in- 
dustries can be carried on without any 
struggle, their results will be worthless, and 
when wages can be secured without any 
effort they will have no purchasing value. 
In the end the value of the product will 
be measured by the amoimt of effort nec- 
essary to secure it. Our late Dr. Garman 
recognized this limitation in one of his lec- 
ures where he says : — 

"Critics have noticed three stages in the 
development of human civilization. First: 
the let-alone policy; every man to look out 
for number one. This is the age of selfish- 
ness. Second: the opposite pole of thinking; 
every man to do somebody's else work for 
him. This is the dry rot of sentimentality 
that feeds tramps and enacts poor laws 
such as excite the indignation of Herbert 
Spencer. But the third stage is represented 
by our formula: every man must render 
and receive the best possible service, ex- 



82 ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 

cept in the case of inequality, and there the 
strong must help the weak to help them- 
selves; only on this condition is help given. 
This is the true interpretation of the life of 
Christ. On the first basis He would have 
remained in heaven and let the earth take 
care of itself. On the second basis He would 
have come to earth with his hands full of 
gold and silver treasures satisfying every 
want that unfortunate humanity could 
have devised. But on the third basis He 
comes to earth in the form of a servant who 
is at the same time a master commanding 
his disciples to take up their cross and fol- 
low Him; it is sovereignty through service 
as opposed to slavery through service. He 
refuses to make the world wealthy, but 
He offers to help them make themselves 
wealthy with true riches which shall be a 
hundred-fold more, even in this life, than 
that which was offered them by any former 
system." 

This applies to political life no less than 



ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 83 

to industrial life. We live under the fairest 
government on earth. But it is not self-sus- 
taining. Nor is that all. There are selfish- 
ness and injustice and evil in the world. 
More than that, these forces are never at 
rest. Some desire to use the processes of 
government for their own ends. Some de- 
sire to destroy the authority of government 
altogether. Our institutions are predica- 
ted on the rights and the corresponding 
duties, on the worth, of the individual. It 
is to him that we must look for safety. 
We may need new charters, new consti- 
tutions and new laws at times. We must 
always have an alert and interested citizen- 
ship. We have no dependence but the indi- 
vidual. New charters cannot save us. They 
may appear to help but the chances are 
that the beneficial results obtained result 
from an increased interest aroused by dis- 
cussing changes. Laws do not make reforms, 
reforms make laws. We cannot look to gov- 
ernment. We must look to ourselves. We 



84 ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS 

must stand not in the expectation of a re- 
ward but with a desire to serve. There will 
come out of government exactly what is 
put into it. Society gets about what it de- 
serves. It is the part of educated men to 
know and recognize these principles and in- 
fluences and knowing them to inform and 
warn their fellow countrymen. Politics is 
the process of action in public affairs. It is 
personal, it is individual, and nothing more. 
Destiny is in you. 



TREMONT TEJMPLE 85 



XIII 

TREMONT TEMPLE 
November 3, 1917 

There is a time and place for everything. 
There are times when some things are out 
of place. Domestic science is an important 
subject. So is the proper heating and venti- 
lating of our habitations. But when the 
house is on fire reasonable men do not stop 
to argue of culinary cuts nor listen to a dis- 
quisition on plumbing; they call out the 
fire department and join it in an attempt to 
save their dwelling. They think only in 
terms of the conflagration. 

So it is in this hour that has come to us so 
grim with destiny. We cannot stop now to 
discuss domestic party politics. Our men 
are on the firing-line of France. There will 
be no party designations in the casualty 
lists. We cannot stop to glance at that al- 
luring field of history that tells us of the 



86 TREMONT TEMPLE 

past patriotic devotion of the men of our 
party to the cause of the Nation — devo- 
tion without reserve. We must think now 
only" in terms of winning the war. 

An election at this time is not of our 
choosing. We are having one because it is 
necessary under the terms of our Constitu- 
tion of Massachusetts. We have not con- 
ducted the ordinary party canvass. We 
have not flaunted party banners, we have 
not burned red fire, we have not rent the 
air with martial music, we have not held 
the usual party rallies. We have addressed 
meetings, but such addresses have been to 
urge subscriptions to the Liberty Loan, to 
urge gifts to the great humanitarian work 
of the Red Cross, and for the efforts of 
charity, benevolence, and mercy that are 
represented by the Y.M.C.A. and by the 
Knights of Columbus, for the conservation 
of food, and for the other patriotic purposes. 

But we are not to infer that this is not an 
important election. It is too important to 



TREMONT TEMPLE 87 

think of candidates, too important to think 
of party, too important to think of any- 
thing but our country at war. No more im- 
portant election has been held since the 
days of War Governor Andrew. On Tues- 
day next the voters of Massachusetts will 
decide whether they will support the Gov- 
ernment in its defence of America, and its 
defence of all that America means. There 
is no room for domestic party issues here. 
The only question for consideration is 
whether the Government of this Common- 
wealth, legislative and executive, has ren- 
dered and will render prompt and efficient 
support for the national defence. Perhaps 
it would be enough to point out that Massa- 
chusetts troops were first at the Mexican 
border and first in France. But that is only 
part of the story. 

Wars are waged now with far more than 
merely the troops in the field. Every re- 
source of the people goes into the battle. It 
is a matter of organizing the entire fabric 



88 TREMONT TEMPLE 

of society. No one has yet pointed out, no 
one can point out, any failure on the part 
of our State Government to take efficient 
measures for this purpose. More than that, 
Massachusetts did not have to be asked; 
while Washington was yet dumb Massa- 
chusetts spoke. 

Months before war was declared a Public 
Safety Committee was appointed and went 
to work; weeks before war a conference of 
New England Governors was called and a 
million dollars was given the Governor and 
Council to equip Massachusetts troops for 
which the National Treasury had no money. 
By reason of this foresight our men went 
forth better supplied than any others, with 
ten dollars additional pay from their home 
State, and the assurance that their depend- 
ents could draw forty dollars monthly 
where needed for their support. The pro- 
duction and distribution of food and fuel 
have been advanced. The maintenance of 
industrial peace has been promoted. The 



TREMONT TEMPLE 89 

Gloucester fishermen, fifteen thousand 
shoemakers in Lynn, the Boston & Maine 
railroad employees, have had their differ- 
ences adjusted. A second million dollars 
for emergency expenses has been given the 
Governor and Council. An eflScient State 
Guard of over ten thousand men has been 
organized. Our brave soldiers, their depend- 
ents, the great patriotic public have been 
protected by the present Government with 
every means that ingenuity could devise. 
We have won the right to reelection by 
duty well performed. 

Remember this: we are not responsible 
for the war, we are responsible for the prep- 
aration that enables us to defend our sol- 
diers and ourselves from savages. Mas- 
sachusetts is not going to repudiate these 
patriotic services. To do so now would mean 
more than repudiating the Government. It 
would mean repudiating the devotion of 
our brave men in arms, repudiating the 
sacrifice of the fathers, mothers, wives, and 



90 TREMONT TEMPLE 

dear ones behind, and repudiating the loy- 
alty of the millions who subscribed to the 
Liberty Loan, — it would mean repudiating 
America. 

Massachusetts has decided that the path 
of the Mayflower shall not be closed. She 
has decided to sail the seas. She has decided 
to sail not under the edict of Potsdam, 
crimped in narrow lanes seeking safety in 
unarmed merchantmen painted in fantas- 
tic hues, as the badge of an infamous serv- 
itude, but she has decided to sail under 
the ancient Declaration of Independence, 
choosing what course she will, maintaining 
security by the guns of ships of the line, 
flying at the mast the Stars and Stripes, 
forever the emblem of a militant liberty. 



TOWN-HOUSE, WESTON 91 



XIV 

DEDICATION OF TOWN-HOUSE, WESTON 

November 27, 1917 

I WAS interested to come out here and take 
part in the dedication of this beautiful 
building in part because my ancestors had 
lived in this locality in times gone past, but 
more especially because I am interested in 
the town governments of Massachusetts. 
You have heard the town-meeting referred 
to this evening. It seemed to me that the 
towns in this Commonwealth correspond in 
part to what we might call the water-tight 
compartments of the ship of state, and 
while sometimes our State Government has 
wavered, sometimes it has been suspended, 
and it has been thought that the people 
could not care for themselves under those 
conditions. Whenever that has arisen the 
towns of the Commonwealth have come to 
the rescue and been able to furnish the f oun- 



92 DEDICATION OF 

dation and the strength on which might 
not only be carried on, but on which might 
again be erected the faihng government of 
the Commonwealth or the failing govern- 
ment of the Nation. So that I know nothing 
to which we New Englanders owe more, and 
especially the people of Massachusetts, of 
our civil liberties than we do to our form 
of town government. 

The history of Weston has been long and 
interesting, beginning, as your town seal 
designates, back in 1630, when Watertown 
was recognized as one of the three or four 
towns in the Commonwealth; set off by 
boundaries into the Farmers' Precinct in 
1698, and becoming incorporated as a town 
in 1713. There begins a long and hon- 
orable history. Of course, the first part of 
it gathered to a large degree around the 
church. The first church was started here, 
I think, in 1695, and I believe that the land 
on which it was to be erected was purchased 
of a man who bore my name. Your first 



TOWN-HOUSE, WESTON 93 

clergyman seems to have been settled about 
1702; and the long and even tenor of your 
ways here and your devotion to things which 
were established is perhaps shown and ex- 
emplified in the fact that during the next 
one hundred and seventy-four years, com- 
ing clear down to 1876, you had but six 
clergymen presiding over that church. You 
have an example here now, along the same 
line, in the long tenure of office that has 
come to your present town clerk, he hav- 
ing been first elected, I believe, in 1864 and 
having held office from that time to this, 
probably serving as long, if not longer, than 
any of the town clerks of Massachusetts, 
certainly, I believe, the longest of any pres- 
ent living town clerk. 

There are many interesting things con- 
nected with the history of this town. It 
bore its part in the Indian Wars. Here was 
organized an Indian fighting expedition 
that went to the North, and, though some of 
the men in that expedition were lost and the 



94 DEDICATION OF 

expedition was not altogether successful, it 
showed the spirit, the resolution, the brav- 
ery, and the courage which animated the 
men of those days. 

Mr. Young has referred to that day in 
Massachusetts history that we are all so 
proud of, the Nineteenth of April, 1775. 
But you had an interesting event here in 
this town leading up to that great day. 
General Gage was in command of the Brit- 
ish forces at Boston. There had been gath- 
ered supplies for carrying on a war out 
here through Middlesex County and out to 
the west in Worcester. History tells us that 
he sent out here Sergeant Howe and other 
spies, in order that he might find out what 
the conditions were and whether it would 
be easy for the British troops to come out 
here and seize those supplies and break 
what they thought was the idea on the part 
of the colonists of starting a rebellion. Ser- 
geant Howe came out here, went to the 
hotel, where, of course, the landlord re- 



TOWN-HOUSE, WESTON 95 

ceived him hospitably, but informed him 
that probably it would n't be a healthy 
place for him to stay for a very long time, 
and sent him away in the dead of the night. 
He went back to Boston and made a report 
to the General in which he said that the peo- 
ple of this vicinity were generally resolved 
to be free or to die. That was the spirit of 
those times; and he advised the Britishers 
that if they wanted to go out to Worcester 
they would probably need an expedition of 
ten thousand men and a sufficient train of 
artillery, and he doubted whether, if such an 
expedition as that were sent out, any part 
of it would return alive. On account of the 
report that he brought back it was deter- 
mined by the British authorities that it was 
more prudent to go up to Concord than it 
was to come out here on the way to Worces- 
ter. That was the reason that the expedi- 
tion on that Nineteenth of April was started 
for Concord rather than through here for 
Worcester. 



96 DEDICATION, OF 

Of course, there are many other interest- 
ing events in the history of this town. You 
had here many men who have seen mihtary 
service. You furnished a large number for 
the Revolutionary War and a large amount 
of money. You furnished as your quota one 
hundred and twenty-six soldiers that went 
into the army from 1861 to 1865. But you 
were doing here what they were doing all 
over the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
I doubt if the leading and prominent and 
decisive part that Massachusetts played 
in the great Revolutionary War is gen- 
erally understood. It is interesting to re- 
call that when General Washington came 
here he seems to have come with somewhat 
of a prejudice against New England men. I 
think there are extant letters which he wrote 
at that time rather reflecting upon what the 
New England men were doing and the char- 
acter of Massachusetts men of those days. 
But that was not his idea at the end of the 
war. Then, although he had been brought 



TOWN-HOUSE, WESTON 97 

up far to the south, he had a different idea. 
Then he said, and said very generously, 
that he thought well of New England men 
and had it not been for their support, had 
it not been for the men, the materials and 
munitions that they supplied to the Revo- 
lutionary forces, the war would not have 
been a success. His name is interestingly 
connected with your town of Weston. 

You have had here not only an interest- 
ing population but an interesting location. 
It was through this town that the great 
arteries of travel ran to the west and south 
and to the north. When Burgoyne surren- 
dered, some of his troops were brought 
through this town on their way to the sea- 
coast. When Washington came up to visit 
New England after he had been President, 
he came through the town of Weston, and 
I do not know whether this is any reflec- 
tion on the cooking of those days in the 
towns to the west, but it says in the history 
of the town of Weston that at one time 



98 DEDICATION OF 

when Washington stopped at the hotel in 
Wayland, although the hostess had pro- 
vided what she thought was a very fine 
banquet, he left his staff to eat that and 
went out into the kitchen to help himself 
to a bowl of bread and milk. I suppose he 
would not be thought to have done that 
because he was a candidate for office and 
wanted to appear as one of the plain people, 
because that was after he had served in the 
office of President. But he stopped here in 
the town of Weston and was entertained 
here at the hotel. And many other great 
men passed through here and were enter- 
tained here from the time when we were 
colonies clear up to the time when the rail- 
roads were established along in the middle 
of the last century. 

So this town has had a long and inter- 
esting history, and has done its part in 
building up Massachusetts and giving her 
strength to take her part in the history of 
this great Nation. And it is pleasant to see 



TOWN-HOUSE, WESTON 99 

how the work that the fathers have done 
before us is bearing fruit in these times of 
ours. It is interesting to see this beautiful 
building. It is interesting to know that you 
have a town planning committee who are 
placing this building in a situation where it 
will contribute to the physical beauty of 
this historic town. We have not given the 
time and the attention and the thought 
that we should have given to things of that 
kind in Massachusetts. We have been too 
utilitarian. We have thought that if a build- 
ing was located in some place where we 
could have access to it, where it could be 
used, where it could transact the business 
of the town, that was enough. We are com- 
ing to see in these modern days that that is 
not enough; that we need not only utilita- 
rian motives, but that we need to give some 
time, some thought and attention to the 
artistic in life; that we need to concern our- 
selves not only with the material but give 
some thought to the spiritual; that we need 



100 DEDICATION OF 

to pay some attention to the beautiful as 
well as to that which is merely useful. 

These things are appreciated. Weston 
is doing something along these lines and 
building her public buildings and laying 
out her public square or her common (as 
it was known in the old days) so they 
will be things of beauty as well as things 
of use. Let us dedicate this building to 
these new purposes. Let us dedicate it to 
the glorious history of the past. Let us 
dedicate it to the sacrifice that is required 
in these present days. Let us dedicate it 
to the hope of the future. Let us dedicate 
it to New England ideals — those ideals 
that have made Massachusetts one of the 
strong States of the Nation; strong enough 
so that in Revolutionary days we contrib- 
uted far in excess of our portion of men 
and money to that great struggle; strong 
enough so that the whole Nation has looked 
to Massachusetts in days of stress for com- 
fort and support. 



TOWN-HOUSE, WESTON 101 

We are very proud of our democracy. We 
are very proud of our form of government. 
We believe that there is no other nation on 
earth that gives to the individual the privi- 
leges and the rights that he has in America. 
The time has come now when we are going 
to defend those rights. The time has come 
when the world is looking to America, as 
the Nation has looked to Massachusetts in 
the past, to stand up and defend the rights 
of the individual. Sovereignty, it is our be- 
lief, is vested in the individual ; and we are 
going to protect the rights of the individual. 
It is an auspicious moment to dedicate here 
in New England one of our town halls, an 
auspicious moment in which to dedicate it 
to the supremacy of those ideals for which 
the whole world is fighting at the present 
time; that the rights of the individual as 
they were established here in the past may 
be maintained by us now and carried to a 
yet greater development in the future. 



102 AMHERST ALUMNI DINNER 



XV 

AMHERST ALUMNI DINNER 
SPRINGFIELD 
March 15, 1918 

The individual may not require the higher 
institutions of learning, but society does. 
Without them civilization as we know it 
would fall from mankind in a night. They 
minister not alone to their own students, 
they minister to all humanity. 

It is this same ancient spirit which, com- 
ing to the defence of the Nation, has in this 
new day of peril made nearly every college 
campus a training field for military service, 
and again sent graduate and undergraduate 
into the fighting forces of our country. They 
are demonstrating again that they are the 
strongholds of ordered liberty and individ- 
ual freedom. This has ever been the dis- 
tinguishing characteristic of the American 
institution of learning. They have believed 



SPRINGFIELD 103 

in democracy because they believed in the 
nobility of man; they have served society 
because they have looked upon the posses- 
sion of learning not as conferring a privi- 
lege but as laying on a duty. They have 
taught and practised the precept that the 
greater man's power the greater his obliga- 
tion. The supreme choice is righteousness. 
It is that "moral power" to which Profes- 
sor Tyler referred as the great contribution 
of college men to the cause of the Union. 

The Nation is taking a military census, it 
is thinking now in terms of armament. The 
officers of government are discussing man- 
power, transportation by land and sea and 
through the air, the production of rifles, 
artillery, and explosives, the raising of 
money by loans and taxation. The Nation 
ought to be most mightily engaged in this 
work. It must put every ounce of its re- 
sources into the production and organiza- 
tion of its material power. But these are to 
a degree but the outward manifestations of 



104 AMHERST ALUMNI DINNER 

something yet more important. The ulti- 
mate result of all wars and of this war has 
been and will be determined by the moral 
power of the nations engaged. On that will 
depend whether armies "ray out darkness" 
or are the source of light and life and liberty. 
Without the support of the moral power of 
the Nation armies will prove useless, with- 
out a moral victory, whatever the fortunes 
of the battlefield, there can be no abiding 
peace. 

Whatever the difficulties of an exact defi- 
nition may be the manifestations of moral 
power are not difficult to recognize. The 
life of America is rich with such examples. 
It has been predominant here. It established 
thirteen colonies which were to a large 
degree self-sustaining and self-governing. 
They fought and won a revolutionary war. 
What manner of men they were, what was 
the character of their leadership, was at- 
tested only in part by Saratoga and York- 
town. Washington had displayed great 



SPRINGFIELD 105 

power on many fields of battle, the colo- 
nists had suffered long and endured to the 
end, but the glory of military power fades 
away beside the picture of the victorious 
general, returning his commission to the 
representatives of a people who would have 
made him king, and retiring after two terms 
from the Presidency which he could have 
held for life, and the picture of a war-worn 
people turning from debt, disorder, almost 
anarchy, not to division, not to despotism, 
but to national unity under the ordered 
liberty of the Federal Constitution. 

It was manifested again in the adoption 
and defence by the young nation of that 
principle which is known as the Monroe 
Doctrine that European despotism should 
make no further progress in the Western 
Hemisphere. It is in the great argument of 
Webster replying to Hayne and the stout 
declaration of Jackson that he would treat 
nullification as treason. It was the compelling 
force of the Civil War, expounded by Lin- 



106 AMHERST ALUMNI DINNER 

coin in his unyielding purpose to save the 
Union but "with malice toward none, with 
charity for all," which General Grant, his 
greatest soldier, put into practice at Appo- 
mattox when he sent General Lee back with 
his sword, and his soldiers home to the 
plantations, with their war horses for the 
spring plowing. And at the conclusion of 
the Spanish War it is to the ever- enduring 
credit of our country that it exacted not 
penalties, but justice, and actually compen- 
sated a defeated foe for public property 
that had come to our hands in the Philip- 
pines as the result of the fortunes of battle. 
But what of the present crisis? Is the heart 
ofj^the Nation still sound, does it still re- 
spond to the appeal to the high ideals of the 
past? If those two and one half years, be- 
fore the American declaration of war, shall 
appear, when unprejudiced history is writ- 
ten, to have been characterized by patience, 
forbearance, and self-restraint, they will 
add to the credit of former days. If they 



SPRINGFIELD 107 

were characterized by selfishness, by poH- 
tics, by a balancing of expediency against 
justice they will be counted as a time of 
ignominy for which a victorious war would 
furnish scant compensation. 



108 MESSAGE FOR THE BOSTON POST 



XVI 

MESSAGE FOR THE BOSTON POST 

April 22, 1918 

The nation with the greatest moral power 
will win. Of that are born armies and navies 
and the resolution to endure. Have faith 
in the moral power of America. It gave in- 
dependence under Washington and freedom 
under Lincoln. Here, right never lost. Here, 
wrong never won. However powerful the 
forces of evil may appear, somewhere there 
are more powerful forces of righteousness. 
Courage and confidence are our heritage. 
Justice is our might. The outcome is in 
your hand, my fellow American; if you de- 
serve to win, the Nation cannot lose. 



ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 109 



XVII 

ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
BUNKER HILL DAY 

June 17, 1918 

Reverence is the measure not of others 
but of ourselves. This assemblage on the one 
hundred and forty-third anniversary of the 
Battle of Bunker Hill tells not only of the 
spirit of that day but of the spirit of to-day. 
What men worship that will they become. 
The heroes and holidays of a people which 
fascinate their soul reveal what they hold 
are the realities of life and mark out a line 
beyond which they will not retreat, but at 
which they will stand to overcome or die. 
They who reverence Bunker Hill will fight 
there. Your true patriot sees home and 
hearthstone in the welfare of his country. 

Rightly viewed, then, this day is set 
apart for an examination of ourselves by re- 
counting the deeds of the men of long ago. 



110 ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

What was there in the events of the seven- 
teenth day of June, 1775, which holds the 
veneration of Americans and the increasing 
admiration of the world? There are the 
physical facts not too unimportant to be 
unworthy of reiteration even in the learned 
presence of an Historical Society. A de- 
tachment of men clad for the most part in 
the dress of their daily occupations, stand- 
ing with bared heads and muskets grounded 
muzzle down in the twilight glow on Cam- 
bridge Common, heard Samuel Langdon, 
President of Harvard College, seek divine 
blessing on their cause and marched away 
in the darkness to a little eminence at 
Charlestown, where, ere the setting of an- 
other sun, much history was to be made 
and much glory lost and won. When a new 
dawn had lifted the mists of the Bay, the 
British, under General Howe, saw an in- 
trenchment on Breed's Hill, which must 
be taken or Boston abandoned. The works 
were exposed in the rear to attack from 



BUNKER HILL DAY 111 

land and sea. This was disdained by the 
king's soldiers in their contempt for the 
supposed fighting abiHty of the Americans. 
Leisurely, as on dress parade, they assem- 
bled for an assault that they thought was to 
be a demonstration of the uselessness of any 
armed resistance on the part of the Colo- 
nies. In splendid array they advanced late 
in the day. A few straggling shots and all 
was still behind the parapet. It was easier 
than they had expected. But when they 
reached a point where 't is said the men be- 
hind the intrenchments could see the whites 
of their eyes, they were met by a withering 
fire that tore their ranks asunder and sent 
them back in disorder, utterly routed by 
their despised foes. In time they form and 
advance again but the result is the same. 
The demonstration of superiority was not 
a success. For a third time they form, not 
now for dress parade, but for a hazardous 
assault. This time the result was different. 
The patriots had lost nothing of courage or 



112 ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

determination but there was left scarcely 
one round of powder. They had no bayonets. 
Pouring in their last volley and still resist- 
ing with clubbed muskets, they retired 
slowly and in order from the field. So great 
was the British loss that there was no pur- 
suit. The intensity of the battle is told 
by the loss of the Americans, out of about 
fifteen hundred engaged, of nearly twenty 
per cent, and of the British, out of some 
thirty-five hundred engaged, of nearly 
thirty-three per cent, all in one and one 
half hours. 

It was the story of brave men bravely led 
but insufficiently equipped. Their leader. 
Colonel Prescott, had walked the breast- 
works to show his men that the cannonade 
was not particularly dangerous. John Stark, 
bringing his company, in which were his 
Irish compatriots, across Charlestown Neck 
under the guns of the battleships, refused 
to quicken his step. His Major, Andrew Mc- 
Cleary, fell at the rail fence which he had 



BUNKER HILL DAY 113 

held during the day. Dr. Joseph Warren, 
your own son of Roxbury, fell in the re- 
treat, but the Americans, though picking 
off his officers, spared General Howe. They 
had fought the French under his brother. 

Such were some of the outstanding deeds 
of the day. But these were the deeds of men 
and the deeds of men always have an in- 
ward significance. In distant Philadelphia, 
on this very day, the Continental Congress 
had chosen as the Commander of their 
Army, General George Washington, a man 
whose clear vision looked into the realities 
of things and did not falter. On his way 
to the front four days later, dispatches 
reached him of the battle. He revealed the 
meaning of. the day with one question, 
"Did the militia fight .f^" Learning how 
those heroic men fought, he said, "Then 
the liberties of the Country are safe." No 
greater commentary has ever been made on 
the significance of Bunker Hill. 

We read events by what goes before and 



114 ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

after. We think of Bunker Hill as the first 
real battle for independence, the prelude to 
the Revolution. Yet these were both after- 
thoughts. Independence Day was still more 
than a year away and then eight years from 
accomplishment. The Revolution cannot be 
said to have become established until the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution. No, 
on this June day, these were not the con- 
scious objects sought. They were contend- 
ing for the liberties of the country, they 
were not yet bent on establishing a new na- 
tion nor on recognizing that relationship 
between men which the modern world calls 
democracy. They were maintaining well 
their traditions, these sons of Londonderry, 
lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray, 
and these sons of the Puritans, whom Ma- 
caulay tells us humbly abased themselves in 
the dust before the Lord, but hesitated not 
to set their foot upon the neck of their 
king. 

It is the moral quality of the day that 



BUNKER HILL DAY 115 

abides. It was the purpose of those plain 
garbed men behind the parapet that told 
whether they were savages bent on plunder, 
living under the law of the jungle, or sons 
of the morning bearing the light of civiliza- 
tion. The glorious revolution of 1688 was 
fading from memory. The English Govern- 
ment of that day rested upon privilege and 
corruption at the base, surmounted by a 
king bent on despotism, but fortunately too 
weak to accomplish any design either of 
good or ill. An empire still outwardly sound 
was rotting at the core. The privilege which 
had found Great Britain so complacent 
sought to establish itself over the Colonies. 
The purpose of the patriots was resistance 
to tyranny. Pitt and Burke and Lord Cam- 
den in England recognized this, and, loving 
liberty, approved the course of the Colon- 
ies. The Tories here, loving privilege, ap- 
proved the course of the Royal Govern- 
ment. Bunker Hill meant that the Colonies 
would save themselves and saving them' 



116 ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

selves save the mother country for Hberty. 
The war was not inevitable. Perhaps wars 
are never inevitable. But the conflict be- 
tween freedom and privilege was inevitable. 
That it broke out in America rather than 
in England was accidental. Liberty, the 
rights of man against tyranny, the rights 
of kings, was in the air. One side must give 
way. There might have been a peaceful 
settlement by timely concessions such as 
the Reform Bill of England some fifty 
years later, or the Japanese reforms of our 
own times, but wanting that a collision was 
inevitable. Lacking a Bunker Hill there had 
been another Dunbar. 

The eighteenth century was the era of 
the development of political rights. It was 
the culmination of the ideas of the Renais- 
sance. It was the putting into practice in 
government of the answer to the long pon- 
dered and much discussed question, "What 
is right?" Custom was giving way at last 
to reason. Class and caste and place, all the 



BUNKER HILL DAY 117 

distinctions based on appearance and acci- 
dent were giving way before reality. Men 
turned from distinctions which were tem- 
poral to those which were eternal. The 
sovereignty of kings and the nobility of 
peers was swallowed up in the sovereignty 
and nobility of all men. The inequal in 
quantity became equal in quality. 

The successful solution of this problem 
was the crowning glory of a century and a 
half of America. It established for all time 
how men ought to act toward each other in 
the governmental relation. The rule of the 
people had begun. 

Bunker Hill had a deeper significance. It 
was an example of the great law of human 
progress and civilization. There has been 
much talk in recent years of the survival of 
the fittest and of eflSciency. We are begin- 
ning to hear of the development of the 
super-man and the claim that he has of 
right dominion over the rest of his inferiors 
on earth. This philosophy denies the doc- 



118 ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

trine of equality and holds that government 
is not based on consent but on compulsion. 
It holds that the weak must serve the strong, 
which is the law of slavery, it applies the 
law of the animal world to mankind and 
puts science above morals. This sounds the 
call to the jimgle. It is not an advance to 
the morning but a retreat to night. It is not 
the light of human reason but the darkness 
of the wisdom of the serpent. 

The law of progress and civilization is 
not the law of the jungle. It is not an earthly 
law, it is a divine law. It does not mean the 
sm-vival of the fittest, it means the sacri- 
fice of the fittest. Any mother will give her 
life for her child. jNIen put the women and 
children in the lifeboats before they them- 
selves will leave the sinking ship. John 
Hampden and Nathan Hale did not sur- 
vive, nor did Lincoln, but Benedict Arnold 
did. The example above all others takes us 
back to Jerusalem some nineteen himdred 
years ago. The men of Bunker Hill were 



BUNKER HILL DAY 119 

true disciples of civilization, because they 
were willing to sacrifice themselves to resist 
the evils and redeem the liberties of the 
British Empire. The proud shaft which 
rises over their battlefield and the bronze 
form of Joseph Warren in your square are 
not monuments to expediency or success, 
they are monuments to righteousness. 

This is the age-old story. Men are read- 
ing it again to-day — written in blood. The 
Prussian military despotism has abandoned 
the law of civilization for the law of bar- 
barism. We could approve and join in the 
scramble to the jungle, or we could resist 
and sacrifice ourselves to save an erring na- 
tion. Not being beasts, but men, we choose 
the sacrifice. 

This brings us to the part that America 
is taking at the end of its second hundred 
and fifty years of existence. Is it not a part 
of that increasing purpose which- the poet, 
the seer, tells us runs through the ages.'^ Has 
not our Nation been raised up and strength- 



120 ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

ened, trained and prepared, to meet the 
great sacrifice that must be made now to 
save the world from despotism? We have 
heard much of our lack of preparation. We 
have been altogether lacking in prepara- 
tion in a strict military sense. We had no 
vast forces of artillery or infantry, no large 
stores of munitions, few trained men. But 
let us not forget to pay proper respect to the 
preparation we did have, which was the 
result of long training and careful teaching. 
We had a mental, a moral, a spiritual train- 
ing that fitted us equally with any other 
people to engage in this great contest which 
after all is a contest of ideas as well as of 
arms. We must never neglect the military 
preparation again, but we may as well rec- 
ognize that we have had a preparation with- 
out which arms in our hands would very 
much resemble in purpose those now ar- 
rayed against us. 

V Are we not realizing a noble destiny? The 
great Admiral who discovered America 



BUNKER HILL DAY 121 

bore the significant name of Christopher. It 
has been pointed out that this name means 
Christ-bearer. Were not the men who stood 
at Bunker Hill bearing light to the world by 
their sacrifices .^^ Are not the men of to-day, 
the entire Nation of to-day, living in accord- 
ance with the significance of that name, 
and by their service and sacrifice redeeming 
mankind from the forces that make for 
everlasting destruction .'^ We seek no terri- 
tory and no rewards. We give but do not 
take. We seek for a victory of our ideas. Our 
arms are but the means. America follows no 
such delusion as a place in the sun for the 
strong by the destruction of the weak. Amer- 
ica seeks rather, by giving of her strength 
for the service of the weak, a place in eter- 
nity. 



122 FAIRHAVEN 



XVIII 

FAIRHAVEN 
July 4, 1918 

We have met on this anniversary of Amer- 
ican independence to assess the dimensions 
of a kind deed. Nearly four score years ago 
the master of a whaHng vessel sailing from 
this port rescued from a barren rock in 
the China Sea some Japanese fishermen. 
Among them was a young boy whom he 
brought home with him to Fairhaven, 
where he was given the advantages of New 
England life and sent to school with the 
boys and girls of the neighborhood, where 
he excelled in his studies. But as he grew up 
he was filled with a longing to see Japan and 
his aged mother. He knew that the duty of 
filial piety lay upon him according to the 
teachings of his race, and he was deter- 
mined to meet that obligation. I think that 
is one of the lessons of this day. Here was a 



FAIRHAVEN 123 

youth who determined to pursue the course 
which he had been taught was right. He 
braved the dangers of tlie voyage and the 
greater dangers that awaited an absentee 
from his country under the then existing 
laws, to perform his duty to his mother and 
to his native land. In making that return I 
think we are entitled to say that he was the 
first Ambassador of America to the Court 
of Japan, for his extraordinary experience 
soon brought him into the association of 
the highest officials of his country, and his 
presence there prepared the way for the 
friendly reception which was given to Com- 
modore Perry when he was sent to Japan to 
open relations between that Government 
and the Government of America. 

And so we see how out of the kind deed of 
Captain Whitefield, friendly relations which 
have existed for many years between the 
people of Japan and the people of America 
were encouraged and made possible. And it 
is in recognition of that event that we have 



124 FAIRHAVEN 

here to-day this great concourse of people, 
this martial array, and the representative of 
the Japanese people — a people who have 
never failed to respond to an act of kind- 
ness. 

It was with special pleasure that I came 
here representing the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, to extend an official wel- 
come to His Excellency Viscount Ishii, who 
comes here to present to the town of Fair- 
haven a Sumari sword on behalf of the son 
of that boy who was rescued long ago. This 
sword was once the emblem of place and 
caste and arbitrary rank. It has taken on 
a new significance because Captain White- 
field was true to the call of humanity, be- 
cause a Japanese boy was true to his call 
of duty. This emblem will hereafter be a 
token not only of the friendship that exists 
between two nations but a token of liberty, 
of freedom, and of the recognition by the 
Government of both these nations of the 
rights of the people. Let it remain here as a 



FAIRHAVEN 125 

mutual pledge by the giver and the receiver 
of their determination that the motive 
which inspired the representatives of each 
race to do right is to be a motive which is to 
govern the people of the earth. 



126 SOIVIERVILLE RErUBLICAN 



XIX 

SOMERVILLE REPUBLICAN CITY 
COMMITTEE 
August 7, 1918 

Coming into your presence in ordinary 
times, gentlemen of the committee, I should 
be inclined to direct your attention to the 
long and patriotic services of our party, to 
the great benefits its policies have conferred 
upon this Nation, to the illustrious names 
of our leaders, to our present activities, and 
to our future party policy. But these are 
not ordinary times. Our country is at war. 
There is no way to save our party if our 
country be lost. And in the present crisis 
there is only one way to save our country. 
We must support the State and National 
Governments in whatever they request for 
the conduct of the war. The Constitution 
makes the President Commander-in-Chief 
of the Army and Navy. What he needs 



CITY COMMITTEE 127 

should be freely given. This has been and 
will be the policy of the Republican admin- 
istration of Massachusetts and of her Sena- 
tors and Representatives in Congress. We 
seek no party advantage from the distress 
of our country. Among Republicans there 
will be no political profiteering. 

It is a year and four months now since 
we declared the German Government was 
making war on America. We are beginning 
to see what our requirements are. We had 
a small but eflScient standing army, and 
a larger but less efficient National Guard. 
These have been increased by enlistments. 
We have a new national force, — never to 
be designated as Conscripts, but as the ac- 
cepted soldiers of a whole Nation that has 
volunteered, of almost unlimited numbers. 
By taxation and by three Liberty Loans, 
each over-subscribed by more than fifty per 
cent, we have demonstrated that there will 
be no lack of money. The problem of the 
production and conservation of food is be- 



128 SOMERVILLE REPUBLICAN 

ing met, though not yet without some incon- 
venience, yet so far with very httle suffer- 
ing. The remaining factor is the production 
of the necessary materials for carrying on 
the war. We lack ships and military sup- 
plies. Whether these are secured in time in 
sufficient quantity will depend in a large 
measure upon the attitude of the people 
managing and employed in these industries. 
The attitude of the leaders of organized 
labor has been patriotic. They realize that 
this is a war to preserve the rights that have 
been won for the people, and they have at 
all times advised their fellow workmen to 
remain at work. There must be forbearance 
on all sides. Where wages are too low they 
should be increased voluntarily. Where 
there is disagreement the Government has 
provided means for investigation and ad- 
justment. Our industrial front must keep 
pace with our military front. 

We are demonstrating the ability of 
America. Within the last few days the re- 



CITY COMMITTEE 129 

port has come to us that our soldiers have 
defeated the Prussian Guard. The sneer of 
Germany at America is vanishing. It is true 
that the German high command still couple 
American and African soldiers together in 
intended derision. What they say in scorn, 
let us say in praise. We have fought be- 
fore for the rights of all men irrespective 
of color. We are proud to fight now with 
colored men for the rights of white men. It 
would be fitting recognition of their worth 
to send our American negro, when that 
time comes, to inform the Prussian military 
despotism on what terms their defeated 
armies are to be granted peace. 

While the victories that have recently 
come to our arms are most encouraging, 
they should only stimulate us to redoubled 
efforts. The only hope of a short war is to 
prepare for a long one. In this work the 
States play a most important part. Massa- 
chusetts must be kept so organized and 
governed as to continue that able, effective. 



130 SOMERVILLE REPUBLICAN 

and prompt cooperation with the National 
Government that has marked the past prog- 
ress of the war. In this we have a great 
part to do here. It was for such a task that 
the Repubhcan Party came into being sixty- 
four years ago. One of the resolutions 
adopted at its birth peculiarly dedicates it 
to the requirements of the present hour. 

"Resolved, that in view of the necessity 
of battling for the first principles of repub- 
lican government and against the schemes 
of an aristocracy, the most revolting and 
oppressive with which the earth was ever 
cursed, or man debased, we will cooperate 
and be known as 'Republicans ' until the 
contest be terminated." 

This great work lies before our party in 
Massachusetts. We shall go on battling for 
the first principles of Republican govern- 
ment until it has been secured to all the 
people of the earth. 

Our American forces on sea and land are 
proving suflBcient to turn the tide in favor 



CITY COMMITTEE 131 

of the Allied cause. They could not succeed 
alone, we could not succeed alone. We are 
furnishing a reserve power that is bringing 
victory. 

But America must furnish more than 
armies and navies for the future. If armies 
and navies were to be supreme, Germany 
would be right. There are other and greater 
forces in the world than march to the roll 
of the drum. As we are turning the scale 
with our sword now, so hereafter we must 
turn the scale with the moral power of 
America. It must be our disinterested plans 
that are to restore Europe to a place through 
justice when we have secured victory 
through the sword. And into a new world we 
are to take not only the people of oppressed 
Europe but the people of America. Out of 
our sacrifice and suffering, out of our blood 
and tears, America shall have a new 
awakening, a rededication to the cause of 
Washington and Lincoln, a firmer convic- 
tion for the right. 



132 WRITTEN FOR THE 



XX 

WRITTEN FOR THE SUNDAY ADVER- 
TISER AND AMERICAN 

September 1, 1918 

The man who seeks to stimulate and in- 
crease the production of materials necessary 
for the conduct of the war by raising the 
price he pays is a patriot. The man who re- 
fuses to sell at a fine price whatever he may 
have that is necessary for the conduct of 
the war is a profiteer. One man seeks to 
help his country at his own expense, the 
other seeks to help himself at his country's 
expense. One is willing to suffer himself that 
his country may prosper, the other is will- 
ing his country should suffer that he may 
prosper. 

In ordinary times these difficulties are 
taken care of by the operation of the law of 
supply and demand. If the price is too high 
the buyer has time to go elsewhere. In war 



ADVERTISER AND AMERICAN 133 

the element of time is one of the chief con- 
siderations. When what is wanted is once 
found it must be made available at once. 
The principle of trusteeship also comes into 
more immediate operation. It is recognized 
in time of peace that the public may take 
what it may need of private property for 
the general welfare, paying a fair compen- 
sation, and that the right to own property 
carries with it the duty of using it for the 
welfare of our fellow man. The time has 
gone by when one may do what he will 
with his own. He must use his property for 
the general good or the very right to hold 
private property is lost. 

These are some of the rules to be ob- 
served in the relationship between man and 
man. To see that these rules are properly 
enforced, governments are formed. When 
they are not observed — when the strong 
refuse voluntary justice to the weak — 
then it is time for the strong arm of the law 
through the public officers to intervene and 



134 WRITTEN FOR THE 

see that the weak are protected. This can 
usually be done by the enactment of a law 
which all will try to obey, but when this 
course has failed there is no remedy save 
by the process of law to take from the 
wrong-doer his power in the future to do 
harm. 

• America is built on faith in the individ- 
ual, faith in his will and power to do right 
of his own accord, but equally is the deter- 
mination that the individual shall be pro- 
tected against whatsoever force may be 
brought agaiust him. We believe in him not 
because of what he has, but what he is. But 
this is a practical faith. It does not rest on 
any silly assumption that virtue is the re- 
ward of anything but effort or that liberty 
can be secured at the price of anything but 
eternal vigilance. 

It is in recognition of these principles and 
conditions that the General Court of last 
year gave the Governor power to make 
rules for the use by individuals of their 



ADVERTISER AND AMERICAN 135 

property during the war for the general de- 
fence of the Commonwealth, and on failure 
on their part so to use their property, to 
take possession of it for such term as may 
be necessary. Up to the present time it has 
not been necessary to take property. Our 
faith in the patriotism of our citizens has 
been amply demonstrated. Of our four mil- 
lions of people few have failed voluntarily 
to use their every resource for the defence 
of the Nation. But of late there have been 
some complaints of too high charges for 
rent in war-material centres. In some cases 
patriotic workmen engaged in labor most 
vital to our country's salvation have been 
threatened with eviction by profiteering 
landlords unless they paid exorbitant rents. 
No one is undertaking to say that rents 
must on no account be raised. But the Ex- 
ecutive Department of Massachusetts is 
undertaking to say that in any case where 
rents are unreasonably raised to the detri- 
ment of people who are just as essential to 



136 WRITTEN FOR THE 

our victory as the soldier in the field, if any 
one is to be evicted from such premises it 
will be the persons who are raising rents 
and not the persons who are asked to pay 
them. This action is taken to protect the 
Nation. It is taken in our desire and deter- 
mination here to cooperate with the Federal 
Government in every activity that is nec- 
essary to the prosecution of the war. It is 
taken also for the protection of the individ- 
ual. We do not care how humble he may 
be, we do not care how exalted the landlord 
may be, justice shall be done. 

This is not to be taken as an offer on the 
part of the Commonwealth to have un- 
loaded on it a large amount of property at 
a high price. Possession may be taken, but 
the ownership will not change. Unless rea- 
sonable rents are charged, the tenant will 
stay in possession, but the rent which the 
Commonwealth shall pay for occupation 
will be determined by a jury. This means 
justice, nothing more, nothing less — jus- 



ADVERTISER AND AMERICAN 137 

tice to the tenant, justice to the landlord. 
It is not to be inferred that our real estate 
owners have lacked anything as a class in 
patriotism. They are our most loyal, most 
self-sacrificing, most commendable citi- 
zens. Massachusetts by its Homestead Com- 
mission is encouraging its citizens to own 
real estate because such ownership is a 
sheet anchor to self-government. But it is 
a proclamation of warning to profiteers, of 
approbation and approval to patriots, and 
of assurance and assistance to the working 
people and rent payers of our Common- 
wealth. 



138 ESSEX COUNTY CLUB 



XXI 

ESSEX COUNTY CLUB, LYNNFIELD 

September 14, 1918 

We meet here to-day as the inheritors of 
those principles which preserved our Na- 
tion and extended its constitutional guar- 
anties to all its citizens. We come not as 
partisans but as patriots. We come to pledge 
anew our faith in all that America means 
and to declare our firm determination to 
defend her within and without from every 
foe. Above that we come to pay our tribute 
of wonder and admiration at the great 
achievements of our Nation and at the 
glory which they are shedding around her. 
The past four years has shown the world 
the existence of a conspiracy against man- 
kind of a vastness and a wickedness that 
could only be believed when seen in opera- 
tion and confessed by its participants. This 
conspiracy was promoted by the German 



LYNNFIELD 139 

military despotism. It probably was en- 
couraged by the results of three wars — one 
against Denmark which robbed her of ter- 
ritory, one against Austria which robbed her 
of territory, and one against France which 
robbed her of territory and a cash indem- 
nity of a billion dollars. These seemingly 
easy successes encouraged their perpetra- 
tors to plan for the pillage and enslavement 
of the earth. 

To accomplish this, the German despot- 
ism began at home. By a systematic train- 
ing the whole German people were per- 
verted. A false idea of their own greatness 
was added to their contempt and hate of 
other nations, who, they were taught, 
were bent on their destruction. The mili- 
tary class were exalted and all else degraded. 
Thus was laid the foundation for the atroc- 
ities which have marked their conduct of 
the war. 

The vastness of the conquest planned has 
recently been revealed by August Thyssen, 



140 ESSEX COUNTY CLUB 

one of the greatest steel men of the empire. 
He tells of a calling together, in the years 
before the war, of the industrial and bank- 
ing interests of the Nation, when a plan 
of war was laid before them, and their 
support secured by the promise of spoils. 
France, India, Canada, Australia were to 
be given over to German satraps. His share 
was 30,000 acres in Australia, with $750,- 
000 provided by the Government for its de- 
velopment. This was the promise made by 
the Kaiser. Here was the motive of the war. 
• How it was provoked is told by Prince 
Lichnowski, the Ambassador of Germany 
to London. He shows how he had reached 
agreements for a treaty which would show 
the good will of Great Britain. Berlin re- 
fused to sign it unless it should be kept 
secret. He shows how Germany used Austria 
to attack Serbia; how mediations were re- 
fused; when Austria was about to withdraw, 
Germany sent an ultimatum to Russia one 
day and the next day declared war. 



LYNNFIELD 141 

This diplomat sums up the whole case 
when he says: "I had to support in London 
a policy the heresy of which I recognized. 
That brought down vengeance on me be- 
cause it was a sin against the Holy Ghost." 
What an indictment of Germany from her 
own confession! A plan to use the revela- 
tions of science for the sack and slavery 
of the earth; the degradation, perversion, 
corruption of a whole people, and by those 
who should have been the wardens of their 
righteousness, done for the temporal glory 
of a military caste, and all in the name of 
divine right. 

Much of this was not known in America 
when we declared war. It is with great diffi- 
culty we realize it now. We had seen Ger- 
many going from infamy to infamy. We did 
know of the violated treaty of Belgium, 
of the piracy, the murder of women and 
children, the destruction of the property 
and lives of our neutral citizens, and finally 
the plain declaration of the German Im- 



149 ESSEX COUNTY CLUB 

perial Government that it would wantonly 
and purposely destroy the property and 
lives of any American citizen who exercised 
his undoubted legal right to sail certain por- 
tions of the sea. This attempt to declare 
law for America by an edict from Potsdam 
we resisted by the sword. We see at last not 
only the hideous wickedness which perpe- 
trated the war, we see that it is a world war, 
that Germany struck not only at Belgium, 
she struck at us, she struck at our whole 
system of civilization. A wicked purpose, 
which a vain attempt to realize has involved 
its authors in more and more wickedness. 
We hear that even among the civil popula- 
tion of Germany crime is rampant. 

Looking now at this condition of Ger- 
many and her Allies, it is time to inquire 
what America and her Allies have to offer 
as a remedy, and what effect the application 
of such remedy has had upon ourselves. We 
have drawn the sword, but is it only to 

" Be blood for blood, for treason treachery? " 



LYNNFIELD 143 

Are we seeking merely to match infamy 
with infamy, merely to pillage and de- 
stroy those who threatened to pillage and 
destroy us? No; we have taken more than 
the sword, lest we perish by the sword; we 
have summoned the moral power of the 
Nation. We have recognized that evil is 
only to be overcome by good. We have mar- 
shalled the righteousness of America to 
overwhelm the wickedness of Germany. A 
new spirit has come over the nation the 
like of which was never seen before. We can 
see it not only in the new purity of camp 
life, in the heroism of our soldiers as they 
fight in the faith and for the faith of the 
fathers, but we see it in the healing influ- 
ences which a righteous purpose has had 
upon the evils which beset us. 

We entered the war a people of many 
nationalities. We are united now; every one 
is first an American. We were beset with 
jealousies, and envy, and class prejudice. 
Service in the camp has taught each sol- 



144 ESSEX COUNTY CLUB f 

dier to respect the other, whatever his 
source, and a mutual sympathy at home 
has brought all into a common citizenship. 
The service flag is a great leveller. 

Our industrial life has been purified of 
prejudice. No one is complaining now that 
any concern is too large, too strong. All see 
that the great organizations of capital in 
industry are our salvation. Labor has taken 
on a new dignity and nobility. When the 
idle see the necessity of work, when we be- 
gin to recognize industry as essential, the 
working man begins to have paid him the 
honor which is his due. 

Invention, chemistry, medicine, surgery, 
have been stimulated and improved. Even 
our agriculture has taken on more eco- 
nomical methods and increased production. 

The call for man power has given a new 
idea of the importance of the individual, so 
that there has been brought to the hum- 
blest the knowledge that he was not only 
important but his importance was realized. 



LYNNFIELD 145 

And with this has come the discovery of 
new powers, not only in the slouch whom 
military drill has transformed into a man, 
but to labor that has found a new joy, satis- 
faction and efficiency in its work. The en- 
tire activities of the Nation are tuned up. 

The spirit of charity has been aroused. 
Hundreds of millions have been provided by 
voluntary gifts for the Red Cross, Knights 
of Columbus, Hebrew Charities, and Chris- 
tian Associations. The people are turning to 
their places of worship with a new religious 
fervor. Everywhere selfishness is giving 
way to service, idleness to industry, waste- 
fulness to thrift. 

The war is being won. It is being over- 
whelmingly won. A righteous purpose has 
not only strengthened our arms abroad but 
exalted the Nation at home. 

The great work before us is to keep this 
new spirit in the right path. The oppor- 
tunity for a military training, the beneficial 
results of its discipline, must be continued 



146 ESSEX COUNTY CLUB 

for the youth of our country. The sacrifice 
necessary for national defence must here- 
after never be neglected. The virtues of war 
must be carried into peace. But this must 
not be done at the expense of the freedom of 
the individual. It must be the expression 
of self-government and not the despotism 
of a German military caste or a Russian 
Bolshevik state. We are in this war to pre- 
serve the institutions that have made us 
great. The war has revealed to us their true 
greatness. All argument about the eflB- 
ciency of despotism and the incompetence 
of republics was answered at the Marne 
and will be hereafter answered at the Rhine. 
We are not going to overcome the Kaiser 
by becoming like him, nor aid Russia by 
becoming like her. 

We see now that Prussian despotism was 
the natural ally of the Russian Bolshevik 
and the I.W.W. here. Both exist to per- 
vert and enslave the people; both seek to 
break down the national spirit of the world 



LYNNFIELD 147 

for their own wicked ends. Both are doomed 
to failure. By taking our place in the world, 
America is to become more American, as 
by doing his duty the individual develops 
his own manhood. We see now that when 
the individual fails, whether it be from a 
despotism or the dead level of a socialistic 
state, all has failed. 

' A new vision has come to the Nation, a 
vision that must never be obscured. It is 
for us to heed it, to follow it. It is a revela- 
tion, but a revelation not of our weakness 
but of our strength, not of new principles, 
but of the power that lies in the application 
of old doctrines. May that vision never 
fade, may America inspired by a great pur- 
pose ever be able to say, 

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of 
the Lord." 



148 TREMONT TEMPLE 



XXII 

TREMONT TEMPLE 

November 2, 1918 

To the greatest task man ever undertook 
our Commonwealth has apphed itself, will 
continue to apply itself with no laggard 
hand. One hundred and ninety thousand 
of her sons already in the field, hundreds of 
millions of her treasure contributed to the 
cause, her entire citizenship moved with a 
single purpose, all these show a determina- 
tion unalterable, to prosecute the war to a 
victory so conclusive, to a destruction of all 
enemy forces so decisive, that those im- 
pious pretentions which have threatened 
the earth for many years will never be re- 
newed. There can be no discussion about it, 
there can be no negotiation about it. The 
country is united in the conviction that the 
only terms are unconditional surrender. 
This determination has arisen from no 



TREMONT TEMPLE 149 

sudden impulse or selfish motive. It was 
forced upon us by the plan and policy of 
Germany and her methods of waging war 
upon others. The main features of it all have 
long been revealed while each day brings 
to light more of the details. We have seen 
the studied effort to make perverts of sixty 
millions of German people. We know of the 
corrupting of the business interests of the 
Empire to secure their support. We know 
that war had been decreed before the pre- 
text on which it was declared had happened. 
We know Austria was and is the creature of 
Germany. We have beheld the violation of 
innocent Belgium, the hideous outrages on 
soldier and civilian, the piracy, the murder 
of our own neutral citizens, and finally 
there came the notice, which as an insult to 
America has been exceeded only by the re- 
cent suggestion that we negotiate a peace 
with its authors, — the notice claiming do- 
minion over our citizens and authority to 
exclude our ships from the sea. The great 



150 TREMONT TEMPLE 

pretender to the throne of the earth thought 
the time had come to assert that we were 
his subjects. Two milHons of our men al- 
ready in France, and each day ten thou- 
sand more are hastening to pay their re- 
spects to him at his court in Berhn in per- 
son. He has our answer. 

It would be a mistake to suppose we have 
already won the war. It is not won yet, but 
we have reached the place where we know 
how to win it, and if we continue our ex- 
ertions we shall win it fully, completely, 
grandly, as becomes a great people contend- 
ing for the cause of righteousness. 

We entered the war late and without 
previous military preparation. The more 
clearly we discern the beginning and the 
progress of the struggle, the more we must 
admire" the great spirit of those nations by 
whose side we fight. The more we know of 
the terrible price they paid, the matchless 
sacrifices they magnificently endured — the 
French, the Italians, the British, the Bel- 



TREMONT TEMPLE 151 

gians, the Serbians, the Poles, and the mis- 
governed, misguided people of Russia — 
the bravery of their soldiers in the field, 
the unflinching devotion of their people at 
home, and remember that in no small sense 
they were doing this for us, that we have 
been the direct beneficiaries of peoples who 
have given their all, the less disposition we 
have to think too much of our own impor- 
tance. But all this should not cause us to 
withhold the praise that is due our own 
Army and Navy, or to overlook the fact 
that our people have met every call that 
patriotism has made. The soldiers and sail- 
ors who fight under the Stars and Stripes 
are the most magnificent body of men that 
ever took up arms for defence of a great 
cause. Man for man they surpass any other 
troops on earth. 

We must not forget these things. We 
must not neglect to record them for the 
information of generations to come. The 
names and records of boards and commis- 



153 TREMONT TEMPLE 

sions, relief societies, of all who have en- 
gaged in financing the cause of government 
and charity, and other patriotic work, 
should be preserved in the Library of the 
Commonwealth, and with these, our mili- 
tary achievements. These will show how 
American soldiers met and defeated the 
Prussian Guard. They will show also that 
in all the war no single accomplishment, on 
a like scale, excelled the battle of St. Mihiel, 
carried out by American troops, with our 
own Massachusetts boys among them, and 
that the first regiment to be decorated as a 
regiment for conspicuous service and gal- 
lantry in our Army in France was the 104th, 
formerly of the old Massachusetts National 
Guard. Such is our record and it cannot be 
forgotten. 

In reaching the great decision to enter 
the war, in preparing the answer which 
speaks with so much authority, in the only 
language that despotism can understand, 
America has arisen to a new life. We have 



TREMONT TEMPLE 153 

taken a new place among the nations. The 
Revolution made us a nation; the Spanish 
War made us a world power, the present 
war has given us recognition as a world 
power. We shall not again be considered 
provincial. Whether we desired it or not 
this position has come to us with its duties 
and its responsibilities. 

This new position should not be misun- 
derstood. It does not mean any diminution 
of our national spirit. It rather means that 
it should be intensified. The most outstand- 
ing feature of the war has been the asser- 
tion of the national spirit. Each nationality 
is contending for the right to have its own 
government, and in that is meeting with 
the sanction of the free peoples of the earth. 
We are discussing a league of nations. Such 
a league, if formed, is not for the purpose, 
must not be for the purpose, of diminishing 
the spirit or influence of our Nation, but to 
make that spirit and influence more real 
and more effective. Believing in our Nation 



154 TREMONT TEMPLE 

thoroughly and unreservedly, confident 
that the evidence of the past and present 
justifies that belief, it is our one desire to 
make America more American. There is 
no greater service that we can render the 
oppressed of the earth than to maintain in- 
violate the freedom of our own citizens. 

Under our National Government the 
States are the sheet-anchors of our institu- 
tions. On them falls the task of adminis- 
tering local affairs and of supporting the 
National, Government in peace and war. 
The success with which Massachusetts has 
met her local problems, the efficiency with 
which she has placed her resources of men 
and materials at the disposal of the Nation, 
has been unsurpassed. The efficient organ- 
ization of the Commonwealth, which has 
proved.itself in time of stress, must be main- 
tained undiminished. On the States will 
largely fall the task of putting into effect 
the lessons of the war that are to make 
America piore truly American, 



TREMONT TEMPLE 155 

One of our first duties is military train- 
ing. • The opportunity hereafter for the 
youth of the Nation to receive instruction 
in the science of national defence should 
be universal. The great problem which our 
present experience has brought is the de- 
velopment of man power. This includes 
many questions, but especially public 
health and mental equipment. Sanitation 
and education will require more attention 
in the future. 

America has been performing a great serv- 
ice for humanity. In that service we have 
arisen to a new glory. The people of the 
nation without distinction have been per- 
forming a great service for America. In it 
they have realized a new citizenship. Prus- 
sianism fails. Americanism succeeds. Edu- 
cation is to teach men not what to think 
but how to think. Government will take on 
new activities, but it is not more to control 
the people, the people are more to control 
the Government. 



156 TREMONT TEMPLE 

We have come to the reahzation of a new 
brotherhood among nations and among 
men. It came through the performance of a 
common duty. A brotherhood that existed 
unseen has been recognized at last by those 
called to the camp and trenches and those 
working for their victory at home. This 
spirit must not be misunderstood. It is not 
a gospel of ease but of work, not of depend- 
ence but of independence, not of an easy 
tolerance of wrong but a stern insistence on 
right, not the privilege of receiving but the 
duty of giving. 

"Man proposes but God disposes." 
When Germany lit up her long toasted day 
with the lurid glare of war, she thought the 
end of freedom for the peoples of the earth 
had come. She thought that the power of 
her sword was hereafter to reign supreme 
over a world in slavery, and that the divine 
right of a king was to be established forever. 
We have seen the drama drawing to its 
close. It has shown the victory of justice 



TREMONT TEMPLE 157 

and of freedom and established the divine 
rights of the people. Through it is shining 
a new revelation of the true brotherhood 
of man. As we see the purpose Germany 
sought and the result she will secure, the 
words of Holy Writ come back to us — 
"The wrath of man shall praise Him." 



158 FANEUIL HALL 

XXIII 

FANEUIL HALL 

November 4, 1918 

We need a word of caution and of warning. 
I am responsible for what I have said and 
what I have done. I am not responsible for 
what my opponents say I have said or say I 
have done either on the stump or in untrue 
political advertisements and untrue posters. 
I shall not deal with these. I do not care to 
touch them, but I do not want any of my 
fellow citizens to misunderstand my ignor- 
ing them as expressing any attitude other 
than considering such attempts unworthy 
of notice when men are fighting for the 
preservation of our country. 

Our work is drawing to a close — our 
patriotic efforts. We have had in view but 
one object — the saving of America. 

We shall accomplish that object first by 
winning the war. That means a great deal. 
It means getting the world forever rid of 



FANEUIL HALL 159 

the German idea. We can see no way to do 
this but by a complete surrender by Ger- 
many to the AlHes. 

We stand-by the State and National 
Governments in the prosecution of this ob- 
ject. I have reiterated that we support the 
Commander-in-Chief in war work. He says 
that is so. 

We want no delay in prosecuting the war. 
The quickest way is the way to save most 
lives and treasure. We want to care for the 
soldiers and their dependents. That has 
been the recognized duty of the Govern- 
ment for generations. 

To save America means to save Ameri- 
can institutions, it means to save the man- 
hood and womanhood of our country. To 
that we are pledged. 

There will be great questions of recon- 
struction, social, industrial, economic and 
governmental questions, that must be met 
and solved. They must be met with a rec- 
ognition of a new spirit. 



160 " FANEUIL HALL 

It is a time to keep our faith in our State, 
our Nation, our institutions, and in each 
other. Doing that, the war will be won in 
the field and won in civil life at home. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR 161 



XXIV 

FROM INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS 
GOVERNOR 

January 2, 1919 

You are coming to a new legislative ses- 
sion under the inspiration of the greatest 
achievements in all history. You are be- 
holding the fulfilment of the age-old prom- 
ise, man coming into his own. You are to 
have the opportunity and responsibility of 
reflecting this new spirit in the laws of the 
most enlightened of Commonwealths. We 
must steadily advance. Each individual 
must have the rewards and opportunities 
worthy of the character of our citizenship, 
a broader recognition of his worth and a 
larger liberty, protected by order — and 
always under the law. In the promotion of 
human welfare Massachusetts happily may 
not need much reconstruction, but, like all 
living organizations, forever needs contin- 



162 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR 

uing construction. What are the lessons 
of the past? How shall they be applied to 
these days of readjustment? How shall we 
emerge from the autocratic methods of war 
to the democratic methods of peace, rais- 
ing ourselves again to the source of all our 
strength and . all our glory — sound self- 
government? 

It is your duty not only to reflect public 
opinion, but to lead it. Whether we are to 
enter a new era in Massachusetts depends 
upon you. The lessons of the war are plain. 
Can we carry them on into peace? Can we 
still act on the principle that there is no 
sacrifice too great to maintain the right? 
Shall we continue to advocate and practise 
thrift and industry? Shall we require un- 
swerving loyalty to our country? These are 
the foundations of all greatness. 

Let there be a purpose in all your legisla- 
tion to recognize the right of man to be well 
born, well nurtured, well educated, well 
employed, and well paid. This is no gospel 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR 163 

of ease and selfishness, or class distinction, 
but a gospel of effort and service, of uni- 
versal application. 

Such results cannot be secured at once, 
but they should be ever before us. The 
world has assumed burdens that will bear 
heavily on all peoples. We shall not escape 
our share. But whatever may be our trials, 
however difiicult our tasks, they are only 
the problems of peace, and a victorious 
peace. The war is over. Whatever the call 
of duty now we should remember with grat- 
itude that it is nothing compared with the 
heavy sacrifice so lately made. The genius 
and fortitude which conquered then can- 
not now fail. 



164 DEATH OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



XXV 

STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The people of our Commonwealth have 
learned with profound sorrow of the death 
of Theodore Roosevelt. No other citizen 
of the Nation would have brought in so 
large a degree the feeling of a common 
loss. During the almost eight years he was 
President, the people came to see in him a 
reflection of their ideals of the true Ameri- 
canism. 

He was the advocate of every good cause. 
He awakened the moral purpose of the Na- 
tion and raised the standard of public serv- 
ice. He appealed to the imagination of 
youth and satisfied the judgment of matur- 
ity. In him Massachusetts saw an exponent 
of her own ideals. 

In token of the love and reverence which 
all the people bore him, I urge that the na- 



DEATH OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 165 

tional and state flags be flown at half-mast 
throughout the Commonwealth until after 
his funeral, and that, when next the people 
gather for public worship, his loss be marked 
with proper ceremony. 



166 LINCOLN DAY PROCLAIVIATION 

XXVI 

LINCOLN DAY PROCLAMATION 

January 30, 1919 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
By His Excellency Calvin Coolidge, Governor 

A PROCLAMATION 
Fivescore and ten years ago that Divine 
Providence which infinite repetition has 
made only the more a miracle sent into the 
world a new life, destined to save a nation. 
No star, no sign, foretold his coming. About 
his cradle all was poor and mean save only 
the source of all great men, the love of a 
wonderful woman. When she faded way in 
his tender years, from her deathbed in hum- 
ble poverty she dowered her son with great- 
ness. There can be no proper observance of 
a birthday which forgets the mother. Into 
his origin as into his life men long have 
looked and wondered. In wisdom great, but 
in humility greater, in justice strong, but in 



LINCOLN DAY PROCLAMATION 167 

compassion stronger, he became a leader of 
men by being a follower of the truth. He 
overcame evil with good. His presence filled 
the Nation. He broke the might of oppres- 
sion. He restored a race to its birthright. 
His mortal frame has vanished, but his 
spirit increases with the increasing years, 
the richest legacy of the greatest century. 

Men show by what they worship what 
they are. It is no accident that before the 
great example of American manhood our 
people stand with respect and reverence. 
And in accordance with this sentiment our 
laws have provided for a formal recogni- 
tion of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, 
for in him is revealed our ideal, the hope 
of our country fulfilled. 

Now, therefore, by the authority of Mas- 
sachusetts, the 12th day of February is set 
apart as 

LINCOLN DAY 

and its observance recommended as befits 
the beneficiaries of his life and the admirers 



168 LINCOLN DAY PROCLAMATION 

of his character, in places of education and 
worship wherever our people meet one with 
another. 

Given at the Executive Chamber, in Boston, this 
SOth day of January, in the year of Our Lord one 
thousand nine hundred and nineteen, and of the 
independence of the United States of America the 
one hundred and forty-third. 

Calvin Coolidgb 

By his Excellency the Governor, 

Albert P. Langtry, 
Secretary of the Commonwealth. 

God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 



SPEECHES OF INTRODUCTION 169 



XXVII 

INTRODUCING HENRY CABOT LODGE 

AND A. LAWRENCE LOWELL AT THE 

DEBATE ON THE LEAGUE OF 

NATIONS SYMPHONY HALL 

March 19, 1919 

We meet here as representatives of a great 
people to listen to the discussion of sii great 
question by great men. All America has 
but one desire, the security of the peace by 
facts and by parchment which her brave 
sons have wrought by the sword. It is a 
duty we owe alike to the living and the 
dead. 

Fortunate is Massachusetts that she has 
among her sons two men so eminently 
trained for the task of our enlightenment, a 
senior Senator of the Commonwealth and 
the President of a university established 
in her Constitution. Wherever statesmen 
gather, wherever men love letters, this day's 



170 LODGE-LOWELL DEBATE 

discussion will be read and pondered. Of 
these great men in learning, and experience, 
wise in the science and practice of govern- 
ment, the first to address you is a Senator 
distinguished at home and famous every- 
where — Henry Cabot Lodge. 

[After Senator Lodge spoke he introduced 
President Lowell :] 

The next to address you is the President 
of Harvard University — an educator re- 
nowned throughout the world, a learned 
student of statesmanship, endowed with a 
wisdom which has made him a leader of 
men, truly a Master of Arts, eminently a 
Doctor of Laws, a fitting representative of 
the Massachusetts domain of letters — 
Abbott Lawrence Lowell. 



VETO OF SALARY INCREASE 171 



XXVIII 

VETO OF SALARY INCREASE 
To THE Honorable Senate and House 

OF Representatives: 

In accordance with the duty imposed by 
the Constitution, a bill entitled, "An act to 
establish the compensation of the members 
of the General Court," being House No. 
1629, is herewith returned without approval. 

This bill raises the salaries of members 
from $1000 to $1500, an increase of fifty 
per cent, and is retroactive. It is necessary 
to decide whether the Commonwealth can 
well afford this additional tax and whether 
any public benefit would accrue from it. 

These are times that require careful 
scrutiny of public expenditure. The burden 
of taxes resulting from war is heavy. The 
addition of $142,000 to the expense of the 
Commonwealth in perpetuity is not to be 
undertaken but upon proven necessity. 



172 VETO OF SALARY INCREASE 

Service in the General Court is not oblig- 
atory but optional. It is not to be under- 
taken as a profession or a means of liveli- 
hood. It is a voluntary public service. In 
accord with the principles of our democratic 
institutions a compensation has been given 
in order that talent for service rather than 
the possession of property might be the 
standard of membership. There is no man 
of suflScient talent in the Commonwealth 
so poor that he cannot serve for a session, 
which averages about five months, and five 
days each week, at a salary of $1000 — 
and travel allowance of $2.50 for each mile 
between his home and the State House. 
This is too clear for argument. There is no 
need to consider those who are too rich to 
serve for this sum. It would be futile to dis- 
cuss whether their services are worth more 
or less than this, as that is not here the ques- 
tion. Membership in the General Court is 
not a job. There are services rendered to the 
Commonwealth by senators and represen- 



VETO OF SALARY INCREASE 173 

tatives that are priceless. For the searching 
out of great principles on which legislation 
is based there is no adequate compensation. 
If value for services were the criterion, 
there would be 280 different salaries. When 
membership is sought as a means of live- 
lihood, legislation will pass from a public 
function to a private enterprise. Men do 
not serve here for pay. They seek work and 
places of responsibility and find in that 
seeking, not in their pay, their honor. 

The realities of life are not measured by 
dollars and cents. The skill of the physi- 
cian, the divine eloquence of the clergyman, 
the courage of the soldier, that which we 
call character in all men, are not matters of 
hire and salary. No person was ever hon- 
ored for what he received. Honor has 
been the reward for what he gave. Public 
acclaim and the ceremonious recognition 
paid to returning heroes are not on account 
of their government pay but of the service 
and sacrifice they gave their country. The 



174 VETO OF SALARY INCREASE 

place each member of the General Court 
will hold in the estimation of his constitu- 
ents will never depend on his salary, but on 
the ability and integrity with which he does 
his duty; not on what he receives, but on 
what he gives; and only out of the bounti- 
fulness of his own giving will his constitu- 
ents raise him to power. Not by indulging 
himself, but by denying himself, will he 
reach success. 

It is because the General Court has rec- 
ognized these principles in its past history 
that it has secured its high place as a legis- 
lative body. This act disregards all this and 
will ever appear to be an undertaking by 
members to raise their own salaries. The 
fact that many were thinking of the needs 
of others will remain unknown. Appear- 
ances cannot be disregarded. Those in whom 
is placed the solemn duty of caring for 
others ought to think of themselves last or 
their decisions will lack authority. There is 
apparent a disposition to deny the disinter- 



VETO OF SALARY INCREASE 175 

estedness and impartiality of government. 
Such charges are the result of ignorance 
and an evil desire to destroy our institu- 
tions for personal profit. It is of infinite im- 
portance to demonstrate that legislation is 
used not for the benefit of the legislator, but 
of the public. 

The General Court of Massachusetts is a 
legislative body noted for its fairness and 
ability. It has no superior. Its critics have 
for the most part come from the outside 
and have most frequently been those who 
have approached it with the purpose of se- 
curing selfish desires of their clients or them- 
selves. A long familiarity with it increases 
respect for it. It is charged with expressing 
the abiding convictions and conscience of 
the people of the Commonwealth. The most 
solemn obligation placed by the Constitu- 
tion on the Executive is the power to veto 
its actions. In all matters affecting it the 
General Court is entitled to his best judg- 
ment and carefully considered opinion. 



176 VETO OF SALARY INCREASE 

Anything less would be a mark of disre- 
spect and disloyalty to its members. That 
judgment and opinion, arrived at after a 
wide counsel with members and others, is 
here expressed, in the light of an obligation 
which is not personal, "faithfully and im- 
partially to discharge and perform" the 
duties of a public office. 



FLAG DAY PROCLAMATION 177 



XXIX 

FLAG DAY PROCLAMATION 
May 26, 1919 

Works which endure come from the soul 
of the people. The mighty in their pride 
walk alone to destruction. The humble 
walk hand in hand with Providence to im- 
mortality. Their works survive. When the 
people of the Colonies were defending their 
liberties against the might of kings, they 
chose their banner from the design set in 
the firmament through all eternity. The 
flags of the great empires of that day are 
gone, but the Stars and Stripes remain. It 
pictures the vision of a people whose eyes 
were tiu*ned to the rising dawn. It repre- 
sents the hope of a father for his posterity. 
It was never flaunted for the glory of roy- 
alty, but to be born under it is to be a child 
of a king, and to establish a home imder it 
is to be the founder of a royal house. Alone 



178 FLAG DAY PROCLAMATION 

of all flags it expresses the sovereignty of 
the people which endures when all else 
passes away. Speaking with their voice it 
has the sanctity of revelation. He who lives 
under it and is loyal to it is loyal to truth 
and justice everywhere. He who lives under 
it and is disloyal to it is a traitor to the hu- 
man race everywhere. What could be saved 
if the flag of the American Nation were to 
perish .'^ 

In recognition of these truths and out of 
a desire born of a purpose to defend and per- 
petuate them, the Commonwealth of Mas- 
sachusetts has by ordinance decreed that 
for one day of each year their importance 
should be dwelt upon and remembered. 
Therefore, in accordance with that author- 
ity, the anniversary of the adoption of the 
national flag, the 14th day of June next, is 
set apart as 

FLAG DAY 

and it is earnestly recommended that it be 



FLAG DAY PROCLAMATION 179 

observed by the people of the Common- 
wealth by the display of the flag of our 
country and in all ways that may testify 
to their loyalty and perpetuate its glory. 



180 AMHERST COLLEGE 



XXX 

AMHERST COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT 
June 18, 1919 

To the son of any college, although he does 
not make his connection with his college 
a profession, a return of Commencement 
Day recalls many memories. It is likely 
also, after nearly a quarter of a century, to 
cause some reflections. It is, I suppose, to 
give tongue to such memories and reflec- 
tions that after-dinner speaking is provided. 
After all due allowance for change of per- 
spective, going to college was a greater 
event twenty-five years ago than it is to- 
day. My own memories are not yet ancient 
enough to warrant their recalling. The 
greater events of that day are too recent to 
need to be related. 

But I should fail in my duty and neglect 
my deep conviction if I did not declare that 
in my day there was no better place to edu- 



COMMENCEMENT 181 

cate a young man. Most of them came with 
a reaHzation that their coming meant a sac- 
rifice at home. They may have lacked a 
proficiency in the arts of the drawing room 
which sometimes brought a smile; but no 
competitor met the Amherst men of that 
day on the athletic field or in the post- 
graduate school with a smile that did not 
soon come off. They had their pranks and 
sprees, but they had the ideals of a true 
manhood. They were moved with a serious 
purpose. He who had less lacked place 
among them. They are come and gone from 
the campus, those men of the early nineties, 
and with them went the power to com- 
mand. 

Those were days that represented espe- 
cially the spirit of President Seelye. Under 
his brilliant and polished successor the Fac- 
ulty changes were few. There was Profes- 
sor Wood, the most accomplished intellec- 
tual hazer of freshmen. There was Professor 
Gibbons, who was strong enough in Greek 



183 AMHERST COLLEGE 

derivation so that every second-year man 
soon had a clear conception of the meaning 
of sophomore. After demonstrating clearly 
that on the negative side the derivation of 
*' contiguity "was not "con "and "tiguity," 
he advised those who could not with equal 
clearness demonstrate its derivation on the 
positive side to look it up. There were 
Morse and Frink, Richardson, Hitchcock, 
Estey, Crowell, Tyler, and Garman. All 
these and more are gone. The living, no 
less eminent, I need not recall. As a teach- 
ing force, as an inspirer of youth, for train- 
ing men how to think, that faculty has had 
and will have nowhere any superior. 
"So passed that pageant." 
The college of to-day has taken on a new 
life, a new activity. Military training then 
was a spectacle for the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College. To-day Amherst welcomes 
its returning soldiers, and but a little time 
since divested itself of the character of a 
military camp to resume the wonted garb 



COMMENCEMENT 183 

of peace. Yet it is and has been the same 
institution, — a college of the liberal arts. 
In this so-called practical age Amherst has 
chosen for her province the most practical 
of all, — the culture and the classics of all 
time. 

Civilization depends not only upon the 
knowledge of the people, but upon the use 
they make of it. If knowledge be wrong- 
fully used, civilization commits suicide. 
Broadly speaking, the college is not to edu- 
cate the individual, but to educate society. 
The individual may be ignorant and vicious. 
If society have learning and virtue, that 
will sustain him. If society lacks learning 
and virtue, it perishes. Education must 
give not only power but direction. It must 
minister to the whole man or it fails. 

Such an education considered from the 
position of society does not come from sci- 
ence. That provides power alone, but not 
direction. Give a savage tribe firearms and 
a distillery, and their members will extermi- 



184 AMHERST COLLEGE 

nate each other. They have science all right, 
but misuse it. They lack ideals. These 
young men that we welcome back with so 
much pride did not go forth to demonstrate 
their faith in science. They did not offer 
their lives because of their belief in any 
rule of mathematics or any principle of 
physics or chemistry. The laws of the 
natural world would be unaffected by their 
defeat or victory. No; they were defend- 
ing their ideals, and those ideals came from 
the classics. 

This is preeminently true of the culture 
of Greece and Rome. Patriotism with them 
was predominant. Their heroes were those 
who sacrificed themselves for their country, 
from the three hundred at Thermopylae to 
Horatius at the bridge. Their poets sang of 
the glory of dying for one's native land. The 
orations of Demosthenes and Cicero are 
pitched in the same high strain. The philos- 
ophy of Plato and Aristotle and the Greek 
and Latin classics were the foundation of the 



COMMENCEMENT 185 

Renaissance. The revival of learning was 
the revival of Athens and Sparta and of the 
Imperial City. Modern science is their prod- 
uct. To be included with the classics are 
modern history and literature, the philos- 
ophers, the orators, the statesmen, and 
poets, — Milton and Shakespeare, Lowell 
and Whittier, — the Farewell Address, the 
Reply to Hayne, the Speech at Gettysburg, 
— it is all these and more that I mean by 
the classics. They give not only power to the 
intellect, but direct its course of action. 

The classic of all classics is the Bible. 

I do not underestimate schools of science 
and technical arts. They have a high and 
noble calling in ministering to mankind. 
They are important and necessary. I am 
pointing out that in my opinion they do not 
provide a civilization that can stand with- 
out the support of the ideals that come 
from the classics. 

The conclusion to be derived from this 
position is that a vocational or technical 



186 AMHERST COLLEGE 

education is not enough. We must have 
every American citizen well grounded in 
the classical ideals. Such an education will 
not unfit him for the work of the world. 
Did those men in the trenches fight any less 
valiantly, did they shrink any more from 
the hardships of war, when a liberal culture 
had given a broader vision of what the 
great conflict meant .'^ The discontent in 
modern industry is the result of a too nar- 
row outlook. A more liberal culture will 
reveal the importance and nobility of the 
work of the world, whether in war or peace. 
It is far from enough to teach our citi- 
zens a vocation. Our industrial system will 
break down unless it is humanized. There is 
greater need for a liberal culture that will 
develop the whole man in the whole body of 
our citizenship. The day when a college edu- 
cation will be the portion of all may not be 
so far distant as it seems. 

We live in a republic. Our Government 
is exercised through representatives. Their 



COMMENCEMENT 187 

course of action is a very accurate reflec- 
tion of public opinion. Where shall that 
be formed and directed unless from the 
influences, direct and indirect, that come 
from our institutions of learning. The laws 
of a republic represent its ideals. They are 
founded upon public opinion, and public 
opinion in America up to the present time 
has drawn its inspiration from the classics. 
They tell us that Waterloo was won on the 
football fields of Rugby and Eton. The Ger- 
man war was won by the influence of clas- 
sical ideals. As a teacher of the classics, as 
a maker of public opinion, as a source of 
wise laws, as the herald of a righteous vic- 
tory, — Amherst College stands on a foun- 
dation which has remained unchanged 
through the ages. May there be in all her 
sons a conviction that with her abides Him 
who changes not. 



188 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



XXXI 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY COMMENCE- 
MENT 
June 19, 1919 

No college man who has ever glanced at the 
Constitution of Massachusetts is likely to 
miss or forget the generous references there 
made to Harvard University. It may need 
a closer study of that instrument, which is 
older than the American Constitution, to 
realize the full significance of those most 
enduring of guaranties that could then be 
imposed in behalf of Massachusetts insti- 
tutions. 

The convention which framed our Con- 
stitution has as its president James Bow- 
doin, a son of Harvard. He was a man of 
great strength of character and cast an in- 
fluence for good upon the deliberations of 
his day worthy of a place in history more 
conspicuous than is generally accorded to 



COMMENCEMENT 189 

him. He had as his colleague on the floor no 
less a person than John Adams. It is not 
necessary in this presence to designate his 
alma mater. There were others of impor- 
tance, but these represented the type of 
thought that prevailed. 

In that noble Declaration of Rights the 
principles of freedom and equality were 
first declared. Following this is set forth the 
right of religious liberty and the duty of 
citizens to support places of religious wor- 
ship and instruction; and in the Frame of 
Government, after establishing the Uni- 
versity, there is given to legislators and 
magistrates a mandate forever to cherish 
and support the cause of education and in- 
stitutions of learning. These were the dec- 
laration of broad and liberal policies. They 
are capable of being combined, for in fact 
they declare that teaching, whether it be 
by clergy or laity, is of an importance that 
requires it to be surrounded with the same 
safeguards and guaranties as freedom and 



190 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

equality. In fact the Constitution declares 
that "wisdom and knowledge, as well as 
virtue, diffused generally among the body 
of the people, are necessary for the preser- 
vation of their rights and liberties." John 
Adams and James Bowdoin knew that 
freedom was the fruit of knowledge. Their 
conclusions were drawn from the directions 
of Holy Writ — " Come, know the truth, 
and it shall make you free." 

These principles there laid down with so 
much solemnity have now the same bind- 
ing force as in those revolutionary days 
when they were recognized and proclaimed. 
I am not unaware that they are old. What- 
ever is, is old. It is but our own poor appre- 
hension of it that is new. It would be well 
if they were re-apprehended. It is not well 
if the great diversity of modern learning 
has made the truth so little of a novelty 
that it lacks all reverence. 

The days of the Revolution were days of 
reverence and of applied reverence. Teach- 



COMMENCEMENT 191 

ing was to a considerable extent in the hands 
of the clergy. Institutions of learning were 
presided over by clergymen. The teacher 
spoke with the voice of authority. He was 
treated with deference. He held a place in 
the community that was not only secure 
but high. The rewards of his services were 
comparatively large. He was a leader of the 
people. From him came the inspiration of 
liberty. It was in the meeting-houses that 
the Revolution was framed. 

This dual character little exists now, but 
the principle is the same. Teaching is the 
same high calling, but how lacking now in 
comparative appreciation. The compensa- 
tion of many teachers and clergymen is far 
less than the pay of unskilled labor. The 
salaries of college professors are much less 
than like training and ability would com- 
mand in the commercial world. We pay a 
good price to bank men to guard our money. 
We compensate liberally the manufacturer 
and the merchant; but we fail to appre- 



193 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

ciate those who guard the minds of our 
youth or those who preside over our con- 
gregations. We have lost our reverence for 
the profession of teaching and bestowed it 
upon the profession of acquiring. 

This will have such a reaction as might be 
expected. Some of the clergy, seeing their 
own rewards are disproportionate, will draw 
the conclusion that all rewards are dispro- 
portionate, that the whole distribution of 
wealth is unsound; and turn to a belief in 
and an advocacy of some kind of a socialis- 
tic state. Some of our teachers, out of a like 
discontent, will listen too willingly to rev- 
olutionary doctrines which have not orig- 
inated in meeting-houses but are the im- 
portations of those who lack nothing but 
the power to destroy all that our civiliza- 
tion holds dear. Unless these conditions are 
changed, these professions will not attract 
to their services young men of the same 
comparative quality of ability and charac- 
ter that in the past they commanded. 



COMMENCEMENT 193 

In our pursuit of prosperity we have 
forgotten and neglected its foundations. It 
is true that many of our institutions of 
learning are well endowed and have spa- 
cious buildings, but the plant is not enough. 
Many modern schoolhouses put to shame 
any public buildings that were erected in 
the Colonies. I am directing attention to the 
comparative position of the great mass of\ 
teachers and clergymen. They are not prop- 
erly appreciated or properly paid. They 
have provided the foundations of our lib- 
erties. The importance of their position 
cannot be overestimated. They have been 
faithful though neglected; but a state which 
neglects or refuses to support any class will 
soon find that such class neglects and re- 
fuses to support it. The remedy lies in part 
with private charity, in part with govern- 
ment action; but it lies wholly with pub- 
lic opinion. Private charity must worthily 
support its clergymen and the faculty and 
instructors of our higher institutions of 



194 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

learning; and the Government must ade- 
quately reward the teachers in its schools. 
In the great bound forward which has been 
taken in a material way, these two noble 
professions, the pillars of liberty and equal- 
ity, have been neglected and left behind. 
They must be reestablished. They must be 
restored to the place of reverence they 
formerly held. 

The profession of teaching has come 
down to us with a sanction of antiquity 
greater than all else. So far back as we can 
peer into human history there has stood a 
priesthood that has led its people intellec- 
tually and morally. Teaching is leading. 
The fundamental needs of humanity do not 
change. They are constant. These influ- 
ences so potent in the development of 
Massachusetts cannot be exchanged for a 
leadership that is bred of the market-place, 
to her advantage. We must turn our eyes 
from what is to what ought to be. The men 
of the day of John Adams and James Bow- 



COMMENCEMENT 195 

doln had a vision that looked into the heart 
of things. They led a revolution that swept 
on to a successful conclusion. They estab- 
lished a nation that has endured until its 
flag is the ancient among the banners of the 
earth. Their counsel will not be mocked. 
The men of that day almost alone in his- 
tory brought a Revolution to its objective. 
Not only that, they reached it in such a con- 
dition that it there remained. The counter- 
attack of disorder failed entirely to dis- 
lodge it. Their success lay entirely in the 
convictions they had. No nation can reject 
these convictions and remain a republic. 
Anarchy or despotism will overwhelm it. 

Massachusetts established Harvard Col- 
lege to be a defender of righteous convic- 
tions, of reverence for truth and for the 
heralds of truth. The purpose set forth in 
the Constitution is clear and plain. It recog- 
nizes with the clear conviction of men not 
thinking of themselves that the cause of 
America is the cause of education, but of 



196 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

education with a soul, a trained intellect but 
guided ever by an enlightened conscience. 
We of our day need to recognize with the 
same vision that when these fail, America 
has failed. 



PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY 197 

XXXII 

PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY 

September 1, 1919 

The laws of our country have designated 
the first Monday of each September as 
Labor Day. It is truly an American day, for 
it was here that for the first time in history 
a government was founded on a recognition 
of the sovereignty of the citizen which has 
irresistibly led to a realization of the dig- 
nity of his occupation. It is with added pro- 
priety that this day is observed this year. 
For the first time in five years it comes at a 
time when the issue of world events makes 
it no longer doubtful whether the American 
conception of work as the crowning glory 
of men free and equal is to prevail over 
the age-old European conception that work 
is the badge of the menial and the inferior. 
The American ideal has prevailed on Eu- 
ropean battle-fields through the loyalty, 
devotion, and sacrifice of American labor. 



198 PLYMOUTH. LABOR DAY 

The duty of citizenship in this hour is to 
strive to maintain and extend that ideal at 
home. 

The past five years have been a time of 
rapid change and great progress for the 
American people. Not only have the hours 
and conditions of labor been greatly im- 
proved, but wages have increased about one 
hundred per cent. There has been a great 
economic change for the better among all 
wage-earners. 

We have known that political power was 
with the people, because they have the 
votes. We have generally supposed that 
economic power was not with the people, 
because they did not own the property. 
This supposition, probably never true, is 
growing more and more to be contrary to 
the facts. The great outstanding fact in the 
economic life of America is that the wealth 
of the Nation is owned by the people of the 
Nation. The stockholders of the great cor- 
porations run into the hundreds of thou- 



PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY 199 

sands, the small tradesmen, the thrifty 
householders, the tillers of the soil, the 
depositors in savings banks, and the now 
owners of government bonds, make a num- 
ber that includes nearly our entire people. 
This would be illustrated by a few Massa- 
chusetts examples from figures which were 
reported in 1918: 

Number of Stockholders 

Railroads 40,485 

Street railways 17,527 

Telephone 49,688 

Western Union Telegraph... 9,360 

117,060 
Number of Employees 

Railroads 20,604 

Street railways 25,000 

Telephone 11,471 

Western Union Telegraph. . . 2,065 

59,140 

Savings bank depositors. . . . 2,491,646 

Railroad, street railway, and 
telephone bonds held by 
savings banks and savings 
departments of trust com- 
panies $267,795,636 

Savings bank deposits $1,022,342,583 



200 PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY 

Money is pouring into savings banks at 
the rate of $275,000 each working day. 

Comment on these figures is unnecessary. 
There is, of course, some redupHcation, but 
in these four public service enterprises there 
are in Massachusetts almost twice as many 
direct owners as there are employees. Two 
persons out of three have money in the 
savings bank — men, women, and children. 
There is this additional fact : more than one 
quarter of the stupendous sum of over a 
billion dollars of the savings of nearly two 
and a half million savings depositors is in- 
vested in railroad, street railway, and tele- 
phone securities. 

With these examples in mind it would 
appear that our problem of economic jus- 
tice in Massachusetts, where we live and for 
which alone we can legislate, is not quite so 
simple as assuming that we can take from 
one class and give to another class. We are 
reaching and maintaining the position in 
this Commonwealth where the property 



PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY 201 

class and the employed class are not sepa- 
rate, but identical. There is a relationship of 
interdependence which makes their inter- 
ests the same in the long run. Most of us 
earn our livelihood through some form of 
employment. More and more of our people 
are in possession of some part of the wages 
of yesterday, and so are investors. This is 
the ideal economic condition. 

The great aim of our Government is to 
protect the weak — to aid them to become 
strong. Massachusetts is an industrial State. 
If her people prosper, it must be by that 
means in some of its broad avenues. How 
can our people be made strong.'^ Only as 
they draw their strength from our indus- 
tries. How can they do that.^^ Only by build- 
ing up our industries and making them 
strong. This is fundamental. It is the place 
to begin. These are the instruments of all 
our achievement. When they fail, all fails. 
When they prosper, all prosper. Work- 
men's compensation, hours ^nd eopditions 



202 PLYI^IOUTH, LABOR DAY 

of labor are cold consolations, if there be no 
employment. And employment can be had 
only if some one finds it profitable. The 
greater the profit, the greater the wages. 

This is one of the economic lessons of the 
war. It should be remembered now when 
taxes are to be laid, and in the period of 
readjustment. Taxes must be measured by 
the ability to meet them out of surplus in- 
come. Industry must expand or fail. It 
must show a surplus after all payments of 
wages, taxes, and returns to investors. Con- 
scription can call once, then all is over. Just 
requirements can be met again and again 
with ever-increasing ability. 

Justice and the general welfare go hand 
in hand. Government had to take over our 
transportation interests in order to do such 
justice to them that they could pay their 
employees and carry our merchandise. They 
have been so restricted lest they do harm 
that they became unable to do good. Their 
surplus was gone, and we New Englanders 



PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY 203 

had to go without coal. Seeing now more 
clearly than before the true interests of wage- 
earner, investor, and the public, which is 
the consumer, we shall hereafter be willing 
to pay the price and secure the benefits of 
justice to all these coordinate interests. 

We have met the economic problem of 
the returning service men. They have been 
assimilated into our industrial life with lit- 
tle delay and with no disturbance of exist- 
ing conditions. The day of adversity has 
passed. The American people met and over- 
came it. The day of prosperity has come. 
The great question now is whether the 
American people can endure their prosper- 
ity. I believe they can. The power to pre- 
serve America is in the same hands to-day 
that it was when the German army was al- 
most at the gates of Paris. That power is 
with the people themselves; not one class, 
but all classes ; not one occupation, but all oc- 
cupations; not one citizen, but all citizens. 

During the past five years we have heard 



204 PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY 

many false prophets. Some were honest, 
but unwise; some plain slackers; a very 
few were simply public enemies. Had their 
counsels prevailed, America would have 
been destroyed. In general they appealed to 
the lower impulses of the people, for in their 
ignorance they believed the most powerful 
motive of this Nation was a sodden selfish- 
ness. They said the war would never affect 
us; we should confine ourselves to making 
money. They argued for peace at any price. 
They opposed selective service. They sought 
to prevent sending soldiers to Europe. They 
advocated peace by negotiation. They 
were answered from beginning to end by 
the loyalty of the American workingmen 
and the wisdom of their leaders. That 
loyalty and that wisdom will not desert us 
now. The voices that would have lured us 
to destruction were unheeded. All counsels 
of selfishness were unheeded, and America 
responded with a spirit which united our 
people as never before to the call of duty. 



PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY 205 

Having accomplished this great task, 
having emerged from the war the strongest, 
the least burdened nation on earth, are we 
now to fail before our lesser task? Are we 
to turn aside from the path that has led 
us to success? Who now will set selfishness 
above duty? The counsel that Samuel Gom- 
pers gave is still sound, when he said in 
effect, "America may not be perfect. It has 
the imperfections of all things human. But 
it is the best country on earth, and the man 
who will not work for it, who will not fight 
for it, and if need be die for it, is unworthy 
to live in it.'* 

Happily, the day when the call to fight 
or die is now past. But the day when it is 
the duty of all Americans to work will re- 
main forever. Our great need now is for 
more of everything for everybody. It is not 
money that the nation or the world needs 
to-day, but the products of labor. These 
products are to be secured only by the 
united efforts of an entire people. The 



206 PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY 

trained business man and the humblest 
workman must each contribute. All of us 
must work, and in that work there should 
be no interruption. There must be more 
food, more clothing, more shelter. The 
directors of industry must direct it more 
efficiently, the workers in industry must 
work in it more efficiently. Such a course 
saved us in war; only such a course can pre- 
serve us in peace. The power to preserve 
America, with all that it now means to the 
world, all the great hope that it holds for 
humanity, lies in the hands of the people. 
Talents and opportunity exist. Application 
only is uncertain. May Labor Day of 1919 
declare with an increased emphasis the 
resolution of all Americans to work for 
America. 



WESTFIELD 207 



XXXIII 

WESTFLELD 
September S, 1919 

We come here on this occasion to honor 
the past, and in that honor render more se- 
cure the present. It was by such men as 
settled Westfield, and two hundred and fifty 
years ago estabhshed by law a chartered 
and ordered government, that the founda- 
tions of Massachusetts were laid. And it 
was on the foundations of Massachusetts 
that there began that training of the people 
for the great days that were to come, when 
they were prepared to endorse and support 
the principles set out in the Declaration 
of Independence, the Constitution of the 
United States of America, and the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. 
Here were planted the same seeds of right- 
eousness victorious which later flourished 
with such abundance at Saratoga, at Gettys- 



208 WESTFIELD 

burg, and at the second battle of the Marne. 
Stupendous results, the product of a people 
working with an everlasting purpose. 

While celebrating the history of West- 
field, this day has been set apart to the mem- 
ory of one of her most illustrious sons. 
General William Shepard. To others are 
assigned the history of your town and the 
biography of your soldier. Into those par- 
ticulars I shall not enter. But the prin- 
ciples of government and of citizenship 
which they so well represent, and nobly 
illustrate, will never be untimely or un- 
worthy of reiteration. 

The political history of Westfield has 
seen the success of a great forward move- 
ment, to which it contributed its part, in 
establishing the principle, that the indi- 
vidual in his rights is supreme, and that 
*' governments derive their just powers 
from the consent of the governed." It is 
the establishment of liberty, under an or- 
dered form of government, in this ancient 



WESTFIELD 209 

town, by the people themselves, that to-day- 
draws us here in admiration of her achieve- 
ments. When we turn to the life of her 
patriot son we see that he no less grandly 
illustrated the principle, that to such gov- 
ernment, so established, the people owe an 
allegiance which has the binding power of 
the most solemn obligation. 

There is such a disposition in these days 
to deny that our Government was formed 
by, or is now in control of, the people, that 
a glance at the history of the days of Gen- 
eral Shepard is peculiarly pertinent and 
instructive. 

The Constitution of Massachusetts, with 
its noble Declaration of Rights, was adopted 
in 1780. Under it we still live with scarce 
any changes that affect the rights of the 
people. The end of the Revolutionary War 
was 1783. Shays's Rebellion was in 1787. 
The American Constitution was ratified 
and adopted in 1788. These dates tell us 
what the form of government was in this 
period. 



210 WESTFIELD 

If there are any who doubt that our in- 
stitutions, formed in those days, did not 
establish a peoples' government, let them 
study the action of the Massachusetts Con- 
vention which ratified the Federal Consti- 
tution in 1788. Presiding over it was the 
popular patriot Governor John Hancock. 
On the floor sat Samuel Adams, who had 
been the father of the Revolution, preemi- 
nent champion of the liberty of the people. 
Such an influence had he, that his assertion 
of satisfaction, was enough to carry the 
delegates. Like a majority of the members 
he came opposed to ratification. Having 
totally thrown off the authority of foreign 
power, they came suspicious of all outside 
authority. Besides there were eighteen 
members who had taken part in Shays's 
Rebellion, so hostile were they to the execu- 
tion of all law. Mr. Adams was finally con- 
vinced by a gathering of the workingmen 
among his constituents, who exercised their 
constitutional right of instructing their rep- 



WESTFIELD 211 

resentatives. Their opinion was presented 
to him by Paul Revere. "How many me- 
chanics were at the Green Dragon when 
these resolutions were passed?" asked Mr. 
Adams. "More, sir, than the Green Dragon 
could hold." "And where were the rest.?" 
"In the streets, sir." "And how many were 
in the streets.? " " More than there are stars 
in the sky." This is supposed to have con- 
vinced the great Massachusetts tribune that 
it was his duty to support ratification. 

There were those, however, who dis- 
trusted the Constitution and distrusted its 
proponents. They viewed lawyers and men 
of means with great jealousy. Amos Sin- 
gletary expressed their sentiments in the 
form of an argument that has not ceased 
to be repeated in the discussion of all 
public affairs. "These lawyers," said he, 
"and men of learning and moneyed men 
that talk so finely and gloss over matters 
so smoothly, to make us poor illiterates 
swallow the pill, expect to get into Con- 



212 WESTFIELD 

gress themselves. They mean to be man- 
agers of the Constitution. They mean to 
get all the money into their hands and 
then they will swallow up us little folk, like 
the great Leviathan, Mr. President: yes, 
just like the whale swallowed up Jonah." 
In the convention sat Jonathan Smith, 
a farmer from Lanesboro. He had seen 
Shays's Rebellion in Berkshire. There had 
been no better example of a man of the 
people desiring the common good. 

"I am a plain man," said Mr. Smith, 
"and am not used to speak in public, but 
I am going to show the effects of anarchy, 
that you may see why I wish for good gov- 
ernment. Last winter people took up arms, 
and then, if you went to speak to them, you 
had the musket of death presented to your 
breast. They would rob you of your property, 
threaten to burn your houses, oblige you 
to be on your guard night and day. Alarms 
spread from town to town, families were 
broken up; the tender mother would cry. 



WESTFIELD 213 

*0h, my son is among them! What shall I 
do for my child? ' Some were taken captive; 
children taken out of their schools and 
carried away. . . . How dreadful was this! 
Our distress was so great that we should 
have been glad to snatch at anything that 
looked like a government. . . . Now, Mr. 
President, when I saw this Constitution, I 
found that it was a cure for these disorders. 
I got a copy of it, and read it over and over. 
... I did not go to any lawyer, to ask his 
opinion; we have no lawyer in our town, 
and we do well enough without. My hon- 
ourable old daddy there (pointing to Mr. 
Singletary) won't think that I expect to be 
a Congressman, and swallow up the liber- 
ties of the people. I never had any post, nor 
do I want one. But I don't think the worse 
of the Constitution because lawyers, and 
men of learning, and moneyed men are 
fond of it. I am not of such a jealous make. 
They that are honest men themselves are 
not apt to suspect other people. . . . Brother 



214 WESTFIELD 

farmers, let us suppose a case, now. Sup- 
pose you had a farm of 50 acres, and your 
title was disputed, and there was a farm of 
5000 acres joined to you that belonged to a 
man of learning, and his title was involved 
in the same difficulty; would you not be 
glad to have him for your friend, rather 
than to stand alone in the dispute? Well, 
the case is the same. These lawyers, these 
moneyed men, these men of learning, are 
all embarked in the same cause with us, and 
we must all sink or swim together. Shall we 
throw the Constitution overboard because 
it does not please us all alike? Suppose two 
or three of you had been at the pains to 
break up a piece of rough land and sow it 
with wheat: would you let it lie waste be- 
cause you could not agree what sort of a 
fence to make? Would it not be better to 
put up a fence that did not please every 
one's fancy, rather than keep disputing 
about it until the wild beasts came in and 
devoured the crop? Some gentlemen say. 



WESTFIELD 215 

Don't be in a hurry; take time to consider. 
I say. There is a time to sow and a time to 
reap. We sowed our seed when we sent men 
to the Federal Convention, now is the time 
to reap the fruit of our labour; and if we do 
not do it now, I am afraid we shall never 
have another opportunity." 

There spoke the common sense of the 
common man of the Commonwealth. The 
counsel of the farmer from the country, 
joined with the resolutions of the working- 
men from the city, carried the convention 
and the Constitution was ratified. In the 
light of succeeding history, who shall say, 
that it was not the voice of the people, 
speaking with the voice of Infinite Author- 
ity? 

The attitude of Samuel Adams, William 
Shepard, Jonathan Smith and the working- 
men of. Boston toward government, is wor- 
thy of our constant emulation. They had 
not hesitated to take up arms against tyr- 
anny in the Revolution, but having estab- 



216 WESTFIELD 

lished a government of the people they 
were equally determined to defend and sup- 
port it. They hated the usurper whether 
king, or Parliament, or mob, but they 
bowed before the duly constituted author- 
ity of the people. 

When the question of pardoning the con- 
victed leaders of the rebellion came up, 
Adams opposed it. "In monarchies," he 
said, "the crime of treason and rebellion 
may admit of being pardoned or lightly 
punished ; but the man who dares to rebel 
against the laws of a republic ought to 
suffer death." We are all glad mercy pre- 
vailed and pardon was granted. But the 
calm judgment of Samuel Adams, the lover 
of liberty, "the man of the town meeting" 
whose clear vision, taught by bitter expe- 
rience, saw that all usurpation is tyranny, 
must not go unheeded now. The authority 
of a just government derived from the con- 
sent of the governed, has back of it a Power 
that does not fail. 



WESTFIELD 217 

All wars bring in their trail great hard- 
ships. They existed in the day of General 
Shepard. They exist now. Having set up a 
sound government in Massachusetts, having 
secured their independence, as the result of 
a victorious war, the people expected a sea- 
son of easy prosperity. In that they were 
temporarily disappointed. Some rebelling, 
were overthrown. The adoption of the Fed- 
eral Constitution brought relief and pros- 
perity. 

Success has attended the establishment 
here of a government of the people. We of 
this day have just finished a victorious war 
that has added new glory to American arms. 
We are facing some hardships, but they are 
not serious. Private obligations are not so 
large as to be burdensome. Taxes can be 
paid. Prosperity abounds. But the great 
promise of the future lies in the loyalty and 
devotion of the people to their own Govern- 
ment. They are firm in the conviction of the 
fathers, that liberty is increased only by 



218 WESTFIELD 

increasing the determination to support a 
government of the people, as estabHshed in 
this ancient town, and defended by its 
patriotic sons. 



A PROCLAMATION 319 



The Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
By His Excellency Calvin Coolidge, Governor 

A PROCLAMATION 

The entire State Guard of Massachusetts 
has been called out. Under the Constitution 
the Governor is the Commander-in-Chief 
thereof by an authority of which he could 
not if he chose divest himself. That com- 
mand I must and will exercise. Under the 
law I hereby call on all the police of Boston 
who have loyally and in a never-to-be-for- 
gotten way remained on duty to aid me in 
the performance of my duty of the restora- 
tion and maintenance of order in the city 
of Boston, and each of such officers is re- 
quired to act in obedience to such orders as 
I may hereafter issue or cause to be issued. 
I call on every citizen to aid me in the 
maintenance of law and order. 

Given at the Executive Chamber, in Boston, this 
eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord 



220 A PROCLAMATION 

one thousand nine hundred and nineteen, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the 
one hundred and forty-fourth. » 

Calvin Coolidge 
By His Excellency the Governor, 
Albert P. Langtry 
Secretary of the Commonwealth 

God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 



AN ORDER 221 

AN ORDER 

Boston, September 11, 1919 

To Edwin U. Curtis, 

As you are Police Commissioner of the 
City of Boston, 

Executive Order No. 1 
You are hereby directed, for the purpose 
of assisting me in the performance of my 
duty, pursuant to the proclamation issued 
by me this day, to proceed in the perform- 
ance of your duties as Police Commissioner 
of the city of Boston under my command 
and in obedience to such orders as I shall 
issue from time to time, and obey only such 
orders as I may so issue or transmit. 

Calvin Coolidge 
Governor of Massachusetts 



222 A TELEGRAM 



A TELEGRAM 

Boston, Mass., Sept. 14, 1919 

Mr. Samuel Gompers 

President American Federation of Labor, New York 
City, N.Y. 

Replying to your telegram, I have al- 
ready refused to remove the Police Com- 
missioner of Boston. I did not appoint him. 
He can assume no position which the courts 
would uphold except what the people have 
by the authority of their law vested in him. 
He speaks only with their voice. The right 
of the police of Boston to affiliate has al- 
ways been questioned, never granted, is 
now prohibited. The suggestion of Presi- 
dent Wilson to Washington does not apply 
to Boston. There the police have remained 
on duty. Here the Policemen's Union left 
their duty, an action which President Wil- 
son characterized as a crime against civili- 
zation. Your assertion that the Commis- 



A TELEGRAM 223 

sioner was wrong cannot justify the wrong 
of leaving the city unguarded. That fur- 
nished the opportunity, the criminal ele- 
ment furnished the action. There is no 
right to strike against the public safety by 
anybody, anywhere, any time. You ask 
that the public safety again be placed in 
the hands of these same policemen while 
they continue in disobedience to the laws of 
Massachusetts and in their refusal to obey 
the orders of the Police Department. Nine- 
teen men have been tried and removed. 
Others having abandoned their duty, their 
places have, under the law, been declared 
vacant on the opinion of the Attorney- 
General. I can suggest no authority outside 
the courts to take further action. I wish to 
join and assist in taking a broad view of 
every situation. A grave responsibility rests 
on all of us. You can depend on me to sup- 
port you in every legal action and sound 
policy. I am equally determined to defend 
the sovereignty of Massachusetts and to 



224 A TELEGRAM 

maintain the authority and jurisdiction 
over her pubUc oflScers where it has been 
placed by the Constitution and law of her 
people. 

Calvin Coolidge 
Governor of Massachusetts 



CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A 



